


Mask

by occultclysms



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Humor, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Jewelry, M/M, Multi, Plot Twists, Polyamory, Space Pirates, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, is there a tag for space thieves, jeno catboy, there are so many plot twists i cannot overstate that here, yukhei sexc metal cronch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:20:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23405155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occultclysms/pseuds/occultclysms
Summary: Going on a robbery spree to save his best friend wasn’t supposed to be that eventful. But as always with Donghyuck, things get out of hand very quickly, and with no one to rein him in he can’t really be blamed for the situation at hand.alternatively: donghyuck robs people in space and insanity ensues
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Huang Ren Jun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 34
Kudos: 65





	1. Veni

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haechieprint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haechieprint/gifts).



> hehehe hello everyone, the title is from mask by lay,,, i just thought the lyrics fit yknow
> 
> huge thank you to the dozen people who helped make this fic a thing,,,, first off to ray for helping me come up with the plot and being so helpful when i was just screaming at her, to lil, tee, and macka for being the most supportive readers ever,, for bribing for sneak peaks, flirting with me and yelling in my mentions. then to brooke for beta-ing this in one day like A FUCKING QUEEN
> 
> anways, this fic is not what you are expecting,,, so please enjoy chaotic thieves :)

Donghyuck always knew he had passion in the wrong fields. For example, right now he’s standing outside Chenle Zhong’s mansion on Betelgeuse when this isn’t his home planet (or home system for that matter). All for some stupid jewerly. Well there’s more to it than that, but that’s what Donghyuck needs the public to think.

After all, he doesn’t want anyone else getting any other ideas about how they should be protecting their precious jewels. The Zhongs already have a lot of security, but that’s why Donghyuck is a professional. His ship is nearby and ready to go at a moments notice, he has his transparency suit on (also stolen) and has a map of the Zhong’s house memorized.

Now, all Donghyuck cares about is beating his personal record. He fears no police (well, maybe one, but he’s not from here either) and he’s not going to really hurt the Zhongs here. Maybe they could even get their jewels back after this whole mess is over with. Or maybe not. They have some nice pieces if Chenle’s SpaceStory is to be believed.

Enough dilly dallying. Donghyuck pulls the mask on over his head and everything becomes so much clearer. Night vision, invisibility and the ability to go through walls. Truly a thief's best friend. As Donghyuck steps through the gate he holds his breath, just like he does every time even though he knows for sure the suit works.

Donghyuck runs through the front gardens, taking in the sweet smell of hyacinths as he goes. The only thing the suit didn’t do is make him completely soundless, though it sure helped, but running in a garden isn’t too loud anyway. He stops in front of the Zhong’s front door. It’s been awhile since he’s done something like this, but he kinda wants to mix it up.

So what does Donghyuck do? He grabs one of the pillars to the right of the front door and shimmies up it until he reaches the second story front balcony. Donghyuck eases himself over the rail with as much silence as he can manage, feeling slightly out of breath but so much more alive and awake.

Slipping through the door, Donghyuck examines his surroundings. He’s in the master bedroom, which he could care less about. The jewels are with Chenle, so why bother with the parents? Donghyuck takes a moment to stare fondly at Chenle’s parents before moving into the hallway. There’s a huge double spiral staircase leading back to the first floor with a huge chandelier in the center, which means Chenle’s room is to his left.

Map memorization is probably the only useful skill Donghyuck got from school, truly. Chenle’s bedroom door is made out of solid steel and stands at ten feet tall. Why did Chenle have to be an adopted Xorblegot? With dark blue skin made of literal ice, Xorblegot always prefers to be in the cold, so of course, Chenle’s parents stick him in a literal freezer.

Donghyuck once again takes a deep breath, only releasing it once on the other side of the door. This suit isn’t designed for such freezing cold, so Donghyuck needs to be in and out quickly so he doesn't fry it. Or freeze it. Planted squarely on the center of the wall is a safe, which is where all of the jewels are kept. They  _ are _ very valuable after all.

But, the safe is built in the wall above Chenle’s bed. How the fuck is Donghyuck supposed to get to it without stepping on Chenle. Even the suit doesn’t like going through other species and with the room temperature that might be enough to get Donghyuck’s ass caught.

Luckily, Chenle seems to wake up before Donghyuck needs to start busting out the acrobatics. Chenle walks over to another door, the bathroom, and Donghyuck hops up on Chenle’s bed. He stands on a pillow and reaches his hand into the safe. He needs to get the pieces under the suit material to remove them. Which also means removing his suit’s glove to actually pick up the pieces.

Feeling around inside the safe, Donghyuck realizes that it’s actually much bigger than it appears on the outside. Sticking his other arm in, Donghyuck can feel around much easier, but there’s also much more stuff than Donghyuck expected to be inside. Fuck, does this mean? Yes, Donghyuck, yes it does. 

Before Donghyuck can grumble about sticking his head through the safe, Chenle comes back out of the bathroom. Fuck. One foot on the headboard. Then the second one. Chenle lays right back down in bed, putting him right in between Donghyuck’s legs. 

Under normal circumstances, Donghyuck would make a dirty joke or two about this, but considering the fact that He still has to get down from here, he represses any thoughts. Fuck it. Donghyuck sticks his head into the safe and takes a look around. He sees the brooches all laying together and removes one of his gloves. Dropping the brooches inside, Donghyuck sees a pretty gold set and drops those in as well. This way it looks like a general robbery instead of someone stealing the special brooch.

Donghyuck removes the glove of jewelry and very carefully pours into his pants. Yes, his pants. On the side of both pant legs are pockets to put small stolen objects in. Now, the original intention was probably for something lame like keys, but this works for Donghyuck.

With all the jewels resting close against his leg, Donghyuck sticks his other hand back into the safe and nearly loses his balance. Mother fucker, Donghyuck thinks. This is why he can’t go on robbery breaks, he’ll lose all of his stealth and grace.

Donghyuck is standing on the headboard of Chenle’s bed, kinda hugging the wall and unsure of his next steps. He could jump off and roll to the ground, but that could risk breaking some of the jewels. He could step on Chenle, hope nothing bad happens and make a run for it. Or, he could step down carefully on either side of Chenle. Donghyuck hates that the third option is his best one at this point, but what does he have to lose here? Everything is already lost in Donghyuck’s eyes, all because of--

Chenle mumbles something in his sleep and Donghyuck nearly screams. Doesn’t Chenle have any respect for being out of the way of robbers? Lowering his foot down, Donghyuck makes contact with a plush pillow. Glancing down, Donghyuck sees his foot is about six inches away from Chenle’s face. He eases the second one down to the other side, keeping his weight perfectly balanced. With one hand gripping the wall, Donghyuck swings his leg over to the other side as gently as he can manage. Hopping off the bed, Donghyuck thinks he’s in the clear. He’s got in, now all he has to do is get out.

“Hello? Is someone there?” Chenle asks, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Chenle looks around the room, then gets out of bed. Donghyuck is too scared to even move at all, so he holds his breath and hopes for the best. Chenle is standing less than three inches from Donghyuck’s face and he can’t even take pleasure in the fact that he’s taller than Chenle because this is a life or death situation. Maybe Donghyuck is overreacting, but it sure feels like it.

Chenle could get his ass sent in jail forever if he wanted to. Now, would Chenle do that? Possibly, but Donghyuck couldn’t say one hundred percent. Who knows what Chenle would think of him if he knew why Donghyuck is stealing? Maybe he would empathize, or more likely think he’s crazy for believing in magical gemstones. But technically it isn’t magic, it’s science. Just top secret science Donghyuck shouldn’t know about, but that’s not the point.

Taking the quietest step backward, Donghyuck stares at Chenle. He’s so lucky his horns are small enough to fit under the hood, otherwise Chenle would see two broken, black, floating horns and that’s not really what people like to wake up to just ask--

Fuck. Donghyuck needs his inner monologue to shut up sometimes. Scratch that. All of the time. Fuck thoughts. Donghyuck wishes he could have no thoughts, head empty all the time, but instead, he has many thoughts, head stuffed so full thoughts are going to start spilling out of his ears.

Chenle makes no reaction at the step. He’s still looking where Donghyuck is standing and Donghyuck does not like that one bit. What now? Donghyuck debates between taking a bunch more tiny steps and just running like he’s being chased by the police again (not fun, by the way, Donghyuck would recommend not running from the police 10/10 times. Always have running as your backup backup plan, Donghyuck thinks).

Donghyuck takes two more steps and Chenle’s eyes narrow, which is terrifying because he has three of them. Who even needs three eyeballs? Two is plenty for Donghyuck. Chenle takes a bigger step forward, towards Donghyuck, who about to piss his fucking pants at this point.

Three more steps and Chenle seems to latch onto him. It’s like he’s looking directly at Donghyuck even though he shouldn’t be able to see him at all. It’s unnerving to the point that Donghyuck is continually moving away from Chenle.

Chenle takes a deep breath in, and oh no, Donghyuck is running before Chenle can cry out. One ability of Xorblegot is that they can call to anyone they have bonded with, no matter how far. So, now probably a dozen people have been alerted to Chenle’s distress, which is exactly what Donghyuck doesn’t need right now.

Donghyuck is sprinting down the stairs and has to skrrt to a stop in front of the front doors. Two guards stand blocking both doors and Donghyuck doesn’t really want to run through person, so he looks left then right. To his left is a giant, beautiful vase that’s probably worth well over ten million pieces but that’s the cost of robbery. Donghyuck rips off one glove and knocks over the vase with all his might.

The glove comes right back on and the guards rush over to the vase. Now, the chandelier is all lit up and Donghyuck can hear Chenle’s parents rushing around, probably about to call this planet’s military guard. Wonderful. Donghyuck moves around the guards and is out of the door in five seconds flat. Sprinting at top speed through the garden, Donghyuck tries to not run on the cobblestone, opting for the grassy patches instead so he’s a little quieter.

Once outside of the gate, Donghyuck doesn’t stop running, he runs and runs until he reaches his ship. He fumbles with a glove before diving into his pocket for his ship’s keys.

“Mother fucker,” Donghyuck mumbles, trying not to scratch any pieces against each other, but also trying to get out of here asap. “Fuck.” The ship door opens and Donghyuck nearly cries, stumbling inside. He closes the hull and starts the engine.

Using his ungloved hand, Donghyuck steers the ship into the air and as far away from the Zhong’s as he can before pulling up and leaving this stupid planet for good. Once out of the atmosphere, Donghyuck pulls his other glove off and drops it next to him, then removing his mask so he can breathe properly again.

Gasping in relief, Donghyuck turns on auto-pilot. That was so much more stressful than any other job Donghyuck’s done before. Probably because it’s his first solo mission. This ship isn’t even designed for only one. It can fit up to four, with three crew and one visitor. Yes, Donghyuck bought a ship made for kidnapping people. No, he doesn’t kidnap people. It was just the cheapest option available when he was ship shopping. Donghyuck’s not made of money here. He has to leave some cash in case of an emergency.

Like right now, when Donghyuck sees that the ship is only half full. How this stupid ship looses fuel so fast, Donghyuck will never understand. That probably factored into why it was so cheap, now that Donghyuck thinks about it.

Donghyuck finally gets the ship cruising through the endless expanse of space and gets out of his captain’s chair. The co-pilot’s chair feels strangely empty and Donghyuck doesn’t like to look at it. So he doesn’t. Picking up both gloves from the floor, Donghyuck goes back into his bedroom and strips off the rest of his suit.

Standing in his underwear, Donghyuck takes a good look at himself in the mirror. He’s not completely out of shape, even with the few months off there’s still some definition to his stomach and he just sprinted what felt like a mile, so not a complete loss. Where Donghyuck sees the most change is his eyes. They stare right back at him, unblinking white pools, with dark black eye bags underneath. Gruzeves(Donghyuck’s species)are one of the only species that still get fucking eye bags and Donghyuck hates them.

They make him look weak, in Donghyuck’s opinion. And he wouldn’t get rid of them until his co-pilot is all safe and sound. Donghyuck’s heart aches at the thought of losing him for good. It wasn’t like they could have continued much longer, especially with the idea of marriage and settling down so ingrained into the Luidae. It’s out of Donghyuck’s control anyway.

Taking another glance into the mirror, Donghyuck sees his skin has gone orange from being so sad and he gets annoyed. It’s like having all of his feelings written out on his sleeve. Literally. But getting mad only makes his skin burn a brighter orange, which in turns makes Donghyuck more upset. Before Donghyuck can turn neon orange, he looks away and slips on his pajamas.

Walking back to the main section of the ship, Donghyuck sets a course for Denebola and flops into his chair. He grabs his remote from the cup holder on his right and turns on the TV. The monitor slides down from the ceiling, covering around half of the front window and Donghyuck switches to International Space News, or ISN for short.

“Breaking news tonight,” the anchor begins, adjusting their stack of papers for effect. No one even uses paper anymore, except it seems for news anchors because they haven't caught up to this century. They are still stuck in 6900 when it's already 7000. Get with the times, bro. “Several pieces of priceless jewelry have been stolen from the Zhong family home only minutes ago.”

The TV switches over to someone interviewing Chenle, still dressed in his pajamas and Donghyuck turns up the volume. While he doesn’t give a shit about Chenle or his family really, he wants to know what Chenle thought happened to make notes for next time.

“Can you tell us what happened?” The reporter asks. Chenle doesn’t look distressed at all which rubs Donghyuck the wrong way. Maybe rich kids just don’t appreciate their stuff? Or? There’s helio ships flying over and around the Zhong’s house, their bright lights shining down into the garden, Chenle standing in the center with each parent next to him, lightly rubbing his shoulders.

“I woke up to get some water and then I went back to sleep, only before I fell back to bed I felt something next to my face.” Chenle’s parents look shocked and one of them puts a hand over their mouth. Donghyuck rolls his eyes and props his feet up on the dashboard. “I thought I was imagining it, then it moved off my bed and to my floor, so I stood up and watched to see if I could see anything. But I couldn’t see anything,” Chenle whines.

“That’s the point, dumbass,” Donghyuck mumbles, tempted to turn the TV off early.

“I could hear the small steps of something, but that’s it. I have no idea what was taken, since this only happened a few minutes ago.” Donghyuck needs to practice silent walking, he doesn’t have anyone that can teach him anymore, so he has to teach himself. Which kinda sucks because having a teacher to tease is always so much more fun.

Donghyuck powers off the TV and the screen retreats back, freeing up the front window for Donghyuck to stare out of. With the way they are drifting, it might be easiest to go to Lambda Velorum, but Donghyuck would need to make a pit stop at Denebola before that to stock up on supplies.

It’s better to stock up earlier in your escapades because then there’s a smaller risk of being caught by local police. While Donghyuck isn’t the native species on any planet he visits, with open borders within systems it isn’t uncommon to see species of all kinds just hanging around. And if Donghyuck didn’t have to stop before he got to Mizar that would be absolutely amazing.

For now, Donghyuck sets a course for Denebola, flicks off the lights and heads back to his bedroom to sleep as long as he dares. The ship would wake him once he needed to fly again at the worst case scenario. Well, most likely it would. There was that one time on Rigel where it didn’t and Donghyuck nearly died, but that’s half of the fun here.

Why bother with running around systems if you’re not constantly causing problems and almost dying? Especially if you had your partner with you. That would make everything better, Donghyuck thinks.

Donghyuck isn’t one to really pray before going to bed, but he still mumbles something, if only for his friend. He liked to believe in the elemental gods and their powers, he would always mumble a quick prayer for luck before entering a dangerous situation and it honestly is endearing.

Now Donghyuck misses him even more.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Stopping in Denebola wasn’t supposed to be that eventful. But as always with Donghyuck, things get out of hand very quickly, and with no one to rein him in he can’t really be blamed for the situation at hand. Namely, Mark Lee being tied upside down in his own workshop.

Let’s jump back a bit here.

Donghyuck wakes before his ship even reaches Denebola. He gets through customs easily enough; with fake goods and papers no one really questions why Donghyuck comes to planets. The only planet he ever has trouble with is Mizar just because they have so little trading going on, but that shall be dealt with in good time.

Heading back to his bedroom, Donghyuck double checks the location of the stolen gems. He doesn’t leave them laying out in the open because he’s not a complete idiot. Rather, Donghyuck taps out a pattern into one of the wood panels of the wall farthest from the door. The wood slides away, revealing a safe that uses both an eye scanner and a tongue scanner, so no one is getting into Donghyuck’s safe.

The tongue scanner was hard to find though. Most species have similar tongues, so a tongue scanner is almost useless. Except with Gruzeves, Donghyuck’s species have tongues that can extend out several inches and are black. Donghyuck’s is pierced and forked, so no one’s looks anything like his. Unique down to the very last bone.

Donghyuck’s eyes are also unique, due to them being solid white. The eye scanner checks for an eye and an iris—or a lack of iris in this case—once again giving Donghyuck an upper hand on protecting his goods. Everything is still there, of course, but Donghyuck is a bit paranoid, sue him.

Before hopping off the ship, Donghyuck checks the news on more time. He would use a portable to check stuff like this, if he could afford one. Donghyuck may be a thief, but he’s not rolling in it so to speak.

“Yuta Nakamoto, species Straciross, has been brought in for questioning regarding the break-in last night at the Zhong residence,” the newscaster says and Donghyuck nearly cries. “Nakamoto had been on the planet at the time and currently has no alibi.” Donghyuck actually does a little dance at the news. The police really think, Yuta Nakamoto, the most famous space thief ever would only steal like five things from Chenle’s vault? They truly are idiots then. Yuta would have stolen their entire mansion and gotten away with it.

The very fact that one of Donghyuck’s crimes gets mistaken for one of Yuta’s makes his heart swell with pride. He’s really accomplished something. No one besides him knows though, and that takes a bit of the fun out of it. Soon, he’ll tell  _ him _ about it. The very thought makes Donghyuck smile, putting him in a positive mood for the rest of the day.

Donghyuck exits his ship and locks it, careful to park in a free parking zone because he could  _ not _ afford getting his ship towed. The way towing of vehicles is still a thing makes Donghyuck want to puke. He should be allowed to park wherever he sees fit, who cares if he parks in someone’s driveway.

Migrating to space thousands of years ago had been a smart decision on the human’s part. They had destroyed their own planet, so they sent out crews to repopulate all these other planets. Now there’s probably a hundred thousand different species all across these planets. The one thing Donghyuck doesn’t like about it though is the fact that some species, like Orrets, think they are better for being more closely connected to their human origins. So what if you look the same as humans did seven thousand years ago?

Complaints about humans aside, Donghyuck needs to figure out where he is going. Aimlessly walking around is how you get stabbed (Donghyuck would know). Catching a sign that Donghyuck can’t read, but has a wrench and an arrow on it, Donghyuck decides to take his chances and follow the sign.

Another thing that happened with all of this seperate evolution, new languages. Humans lived on one planet and had like two hundred. Now with so many planets to travel across, Donghyuck couldn’t even count the number of languages and dialects spoken. So, there had been an invention of a chip that every citizen of their individual planet could receive, the UR, or Universal Remote. Why it is named after an old human invention that doesn’t work half of the time Donghyuck couldn’t tell you.

All he knows about this is that he didn’t have one until he stole one and his partner had stolen one for him. So, legally, Donghyuck is a citizen of Procyon, even though he’s from Antares. Which is fine by Donghyuck, he has no connection to Antares or to anyone there.

But these UR only work for speaking. At least, Donghyuck’s model that is. Apparently there’s fancy ones that translate text, that rich people have been buying secretly from their governments and Donghyuck isn’t surprised. Reading is for suckers anyway.

Pushing open the doors of the building the signs guided him too, Donghyuck looks around and smiles. Ah, yes, the smell of oil and deprivation. Delicious. While Donghyuck is a thief by trade, he is above stealing from merchants who are just trying to get by. Call it principle or something. But there are a few rich merchants that Donghyuck has no issue with stealing from.

Donghyuck catches a glimpse of a familiar looking logo for Ten Industries and Donghyuck makes his way over there. Ten Industries is essentially the space mafia with how much control they have over markets, governments and innocent people. Donghyuck can’t stand Ten, the owner at all. He may have come from small roots and built himself up, but he’s just as bad, and probably worse, than all of the people who were born into rich, wealthy families.

Grabbing some fuel packets, simple repair parts and a band of leather that would make a fun choker, Donghyuck is almost ready to make his great escape. Among the rows of supplies, Donghyuck’s eye catches on someone eerily familiar. He bites back a smile once he realizes who’s on the other side of these rows of paint.

Mark Lee.

Well renowned engineer and eye candy. At least within Donghyuck’s circles, that is. Mark is a Petramian, which basically means he looks nearly human with the exception of having unnatural hair colors (Mark’s is mint green), elfen ears and pointed black teeth. Put him in a beanie and don’t let him smile and he’s a human. Mark also runs a legal business of ship repair, but on the down low he runs a business that involves the smuggling of illegal technology that shouldn’t be available to the public yet. Mark takes these high class things and figures out how to recreate them, but for less money.

While making replications of products is a dicey game as is, Mark also enlists the help of thieves, like Yuta, to get him these fancy technologies in the first place, which is illegal no matter how you slice it. What he’s doing is arguably very noble and Donghyuck respects him for it, but right now Mark is Donghyuck’s next target. 

Donghyuck licks his lips and makes his way around the aisles. He pretends to not be paying any attention to where he is going, causing himself to trip into Mark. Mark’s holding a can of paint, which spills everywhere, but mainly on Donghyuck(the things he does for this job).

“Oh my, I’m so sorry,” Donghyuck says, trying to help Mark pick up the other things he’s dropped. “I can’t believe I’m so clumsy sometimes.”

“It’s okay, things happen,” Mark replies, trying to brush off his pants without spreading the paint over more of himself. “Let me get you some new clothes. It’s the least I can do since you’re covered in the stuff.” Donghyuck bites back a witty retort and instead smiles at Mark.

“Thank you so much,” Donghyuck gushes and Mark blushes a bit. Bingo.

“I’ll pay for your stuff, then I’ll take you back to my workshop,” Mark replies and Donghyuck offers his hand to help him up from the floor. This is going so well so far, Donghyuck is nearly giddy with excitement. It wasn’t part of the plan for Donghyuck to ever meet Mark, but Mark also runs an illegal business, so in the worst case scenario there’s some blackmail going on.

Mark picks up Donghyuck’s supplies and heads to the register with Donghyuck trailing behind, trying to withhold his smile. The species at the register looks at Mark and Donghyuck strangely.

“Add one can of galaxy paint to that. The can slipped from my grip and it spilled over the both of us,” Mark reveals, slightly embarrassed. The species rolls their five eyes and adds the charge. Mark scans his wrist over the machine and Donghyuck looks over his shoulder, impressed.

“I didn’t know that the wrist scanners were out yet,” Donghyuck says once they are outside of the store.

“I made my own,” Mark says, not revealing any more information.

“Anyways, where’s your workshop? These clothes are getting a bit sticky,” Donghyuck admits. He wants to find the watch first and foremost, but his clothes are actually getting a bit too sticky for his liking.

“It’s this way,” Mark replies, bag on one wrist and guiding Donghyuck by the other one. Mark takes Donghyuck into an alley and light seems to disappear with all of the overhangs then they are walking down some stairs built into the side of an old building. 

“You’re not going to kidnap me, are you?” Donghyuck jokes, letting some fear slip into his voice. In reality he does not fear Mark at all, but in the case that things go south it would be better for Mark to think he has the upper hand. At the bottom of the stairwell, Mark inserts his finger into a door and Donghyuck is intrigued. A finger scanner, very interesting.

“Not my plan,” Mark jokes back. “Follow me back here to my bedroom, so I can get you some clothes.” Donghyuck follows without question and Mark sets the bag down on his bed. Looking around, Donghyuck takes in Mark’s room. On the right there’s a bed, low to the ground with dark blue covers. In front of Donghyuck is a closet made of two mirorred sliding doors. Mark moves to his left to pull some clothes out of his drawers and Donghyuck takes his shirt off, hoping for the best.

When Mark turns around, refusing to look at Donghyuck’s chest and says, “I think we are the same size, so try this on.” Donghyuck takes the shirt from his hand and sets it on the bed.

“I don’t want to get paint on it by accident,” Donghyuck explains as he slips off his pants. He’s no stranger to being almost naked in front of another stranger, but it appears Mark is. Mark’s eyes fight the urge to look at Donghyuck’s body. Specifically on the black rose tattoo on his right hip.

“What does your tattoo mean?” Mark asks and he bites his lip right after, aware he’s stepped over a boundary. Donghyuck slips on the shirt Mark gave him, this one has short sleeves which shows off Donghyuck’s other tattoo, a koi fish on his left forearm. On any other circumstance, Donghyuck would tell Mark to go fuck himself, but this is a special occasion.

“The rose represents the loss of my mother,” Donghyuck says, lying through his teeth. No one else has to know that he has no memories of his mother (or his father) and honestly could care less about them. “The koi fish is for what she always told me growing up, ‘the difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.’” That quote was said to Donghyuck by  _ him _ and the reason for the koi tattoo. He always believed in Donghyuck. Mark’s face twitches and Donghyuck stares at him. “What?”

“You’re Haechan,” Mark mumbles and Donghyuck drops the soft act immediately. He lunges at Mark and throws him to the floor.

“And what about it?” Donghyuck smirks as he presses Mark’s back farther into the floor with his foot. Even though he isn’t wearing pants, Donghyuck still strikes fear into the hearts of men. Mark doesn’t reply so Donghyuck grabs Mark by the collar and pulls him out of the room. He struggles against Donghyuck, but Donghyuck keeps his grip firm.

On the off chance that Mark gets out of Donghyuck’s hold, Donghyuck will just tie him to something. Mark may be a minor crime lord, but Donghyuck is handy with weapons, and the one skill Donghyuck did keep practicing despite his hiatist-- knife throwing.

Pulling Mark out of his bedroom and to the left leads to a large open room full of parts, a desk, and lots of random things hanging on chains from the ceiling. Mark struggles out of Donghyuck’s hold, but Donghyuck is quick to jump on top of him before he can get up.

“Oh, Markie,” Donghyuck coos. “You should have just shut up, now things have to be more difficult.” Donghyuck caresses Mark’s cheek and he tries to bite Donghyuck who only shakes his finger at him. “Now I have to restrain you.”

To Donghyuck’s left is a pile of chains, so Donghyuck grabs it and against Mark’s struggles loops his wrists together connecting them to his chest and finally looping that down to his ankles. Donghyuck stands, proud of his handiwork. Who knew those hog tying lessons would come in hand? For good measure, Donghyuck grabs a hook hanging six feet off the ground. He pulls on it until he can hook it to Mark’s back.

Stepping away Donghyuck finds the crank for the chain. Five full turns of it has Mark completely suspended in air. Donghyuck smirks at Mark and Mark glares at him, but Donghyuck can’t find him intimidating at all. Turning to Mark’s bins, Donghyuck starts to poke around through things because he still needs to find that fucking watch.

“I know why you’re here,” Mark comments, tone flat but a bit snarky.

“And why is that?” Donghyuck snorts as he digs through Mark’s endless bins of supplies.

“You want  _ him _ back. You want--” Donghyuck spins around with a piece of sharp metal in hand.

“If you dare say his name, I  _ will _ cut off your fingers, one by one,” Donghyuck breathes, coming close enough to Mark where their noses are only inches apart.

“Fine. Release me and I’ll give you what you want,” Mark counters.

“I thought you guys didn’t know what any of the things were for,” Donghyuck counters right back, poke Mark lightly with the rusty metal.

“The others don’t but I do. I also found a way to access the information kept on it.” Information kept on it. The blood drains out of Donghyuck’s face. If it’s what he thinks it is, he might have to kill Mark. While that wasn’t part of the plan, it might have to become part of it. “Oh, don’t look so upset. I didn’t see you two fucking or something so calm down.”

“I-- we’ve never--,” Donghyuck stutters, caught completely off guard at the implication. “What did you find?”

“Well, let’s just say you aren’t the only one competing for his heart. He’s said that quote to another before.” Mark smirks and Donghyuck presses the metal harder into his stomach.

“Who?” Donghyuck demands.

“Come on.” Mark laughs. “You know who it is. Just think about it.” Mark smiles and Donghyuck can see all of his perfectly pointed black teeth and he wants to punch them out. He could, and that thought alone is enough for Donghyuck. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Deal, but tell me where it is first, so I don’t let you go for no reason,” Donghyuck says.

“What? Let me down first,” Mark protests, wriggling against his bonds. Donghyuck doesn’t respond to him and instead goes over to Mark’s desk and knocks several things off it without looking very closely as to what they are. “Haechan!”

“Tell me where it is first or I’ll smash your computer,” Donghyuck says, poised over the device that probably holds all kinds of incredibly valuable information to Mark. Mark’s face twists and Donghyuck smirks. “Do we have a deal?” he mocks.

“The watch is in the upper right drawer of the desk,” Mark confesses, the blood is running to his face, giving him a pink hue and Donghyuck wishes he could take a picture. It would be fun to frame and hang above his bed, but because capitalism still hasn’t died off yet, Donghyuck is still phone-less. He would steal one if they weren’t so hard to get into. With facial scanners and special voice codes and all kinds of other stuff, Donghyuck avoids them. Also, they can track you which is exactly what Donghyuck doesn’t want.

Donghyuck opens the drawer and sure enough, the watch is sitting right there. He snatches it up and turns to Mark, saying, “How do I know you left his memories on here?”

“Take the fucking USB in the computer if you don’t believe me, just let me  _ down, _ ” Mark whines. “I can feel all of my blood in my head and I don’t like it.” Pulling the USB out of the computer and slipping it into his hand, Donghyuck smiles. This is going great. Mark can’t report the robbery because he’s technically a criminal too and that would lead to all kinds of bigger issues for him.

Now, Donghyuck really was going to release Mark, but he thought of a better idea. He should steal one of Mark’s teeth as a punishment. Petramian teeth could be worth a lot on the black market, but Donghyuck wants to keep one as a prize for himself, and to send a message to Mark to not try and fuck with him. 

Grabbing a pair of pliers from the desk and looking up at Mark, Donghyuck sees the blood seemingly drain from Mark’s face. As Donghyuck steps closer, Mark tries to move his body away.

“I’ll fucking bite you, man,” Mark couters, brows furrowed together. Donghyuck scoffs and grabs Mark’s chin, squishing his cheeks together in the process. Mark glares at him and true to form does try to bite Donghyuck, who only flicks him on the forehead.

With the utmost care, Donghyuck sticks the pliers into Mark’s mouth and latches them onto his upper left canine and yanks. Blood spurts out over both of them, but mainly Donghyuck and Mark screams in agony. Who knew Donghyuck is strong enough to pull out a tooth in one go though? That’s so off topic, but Donghyuck is immensely proud of himself.

“What the fuck?” Mark screams, blood spilling out of his mouth and up his cheek. It’s honestly amusing seeing blood move up someone’s face, but y’know, being upside down do be like that sometimes. “You’re a snake!”

“And you’re a bitch,” Donghyuck snarks. “You’re lucky I’m not smashin up your computer just for the fun of it.” Walking over to the wheel of chain that’s suspending Mark from the ceiling, Donghyuck smirks at Mark. “Should I?”

“Yes! Let me down.” Donghyuck lowers Mark to the floor as asked, blows him a kiss and walks towards the way he came in. “Untie me!”

“I’m sure you can figure it out,” Donghyuck calls over his shoulder and he pushes the door open, walking back up the same stairs he came out. Once the door closes behind him, only then does he realize that he’s still not wearing pants. Donghyuck stops in the middle of the stairs and weighs his options. He can’t go back inside because he doesn’t have one of Mark’s fingers, just a tooth.

Donghyuck glances down at himself, Mark’s shirt is kinda long and he’s wearing boxers. Tugging down his boxers to cover his legs a little bit (but not enough to expose his ass), Donghyuck walks up the rest of the stairs. He’s not familiar for Denebola at all, so he has to walk back the way he came.

Does he run? Does he walk? What does Donghyuck do? Well, he runs. Donghyuck runs until his feet ache and he’s back at his ship. He goes to unlock his ship and he realizes that his keys are in his fucking pants. All he has is the USB, one of Mark’s teeth and the watch. Luckily for Donghyuck he has a spare key hidden next to the door of the ship. Feeling lightly along the edge of the door, Donghyuck presses on the slightly indented spot with his forefinger and out pops the key.

Donghyuck unlocks his ship and closes the door behind him, leaning against it. Everything was going so well, then he lost his fucking pants. This is why one night stands are terrible ideas. If Donghyuck ever had a one night stand maybe he would feel differently.

Walking into his bedroom, Donghyuck strips off the shirt Mark gave him. There’s only a small blood stain, but since Mark was a dick Donghyuck is tempted to burn it. Y’know, for fun. But that’s not what he has to do right now. Right now, he needs to put on some goddamn pajamas.

Redressing into some classic blue and white striped pajamas, Donghyuck hops back into his captains chair and starts the ship up. One nice feature Donghyuck had discovered about his ship is that if it hadn’t been on in over three hours it needed a vibe check to start again. Vibe check isn’t the correct way of saying that at all-- it’s actually just a spoken password, but Donghyuck likes to call it a vibe check.

Donghyuck says his password to start the ship and he’s navigating out of Denebola, hopefully to never return again. If he’s one thing it’s petty, seeing Mark again would be too awkward and Donghyuck isn’t going to risk it.

Now, onto Vega to pay a certain Jeno Lee a visit. Vega is a full day away, so Donghyuck can finally get some proper sleep. While he doesn’t  _ need _ that much, Donghyuck has always been a sleep enthusiast. And no one can blame him either, sleep is wonderful.

Once the ship is out of Denebola’s atmosphere, Donghyuck turns off the ship's lights and practically collapses into bed. Everything else can wait until tomorrow as far as Jeno is concerned.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Donghyuck awakes easily, feeling well rested and ready to start his day. He changes into solid black clothing, careful to remember to place his key into his pocket. Stomach rumbling, Donghyuck looks through the cabinets until he finds some dry cereal that he can eat.

Another downside of the whole encounter with Mark is Donghyuck now has to go and pay for his things for his ship and some fucking food. Gruzeves only have to eat every few days, so it isn’t a huge deal, but Donghyuck would still like to have more options than random bread-adjacent food that he finds laying around.

Sitting down in his captain’s chair, Donghyuck calls down the monitor again and calls Johnny Suh, a Krilovine, that is basically the brains in the operation here. The call rings for a moment and Donghyuck shoves another handful of cereal into his mouth.

“Greetings, Donghyuck,” Johnny says, pushing his glasses up. Johnny, being a Krilovine, looks close to what humans would call a fairy: he has the same elven ears as Mark, star shaped white freckles that seem to shimmer even over the call, blue eyes and black hair. Johnny’s skin is silver toned with more freckles coming down his arms to his hands. He’s also well over seven feet tall, which is something Donghyuck hates to remember whenever they meet because while Donghyuck isn’t  _ short _ , he’s also not very tall and being around Johnny makes that painstakingly clear.

“Good morning,” Donghyuck replies, mouth still full of cereal.

“You could swallow y’know,” Johnny sighs, silver rimmed glasses shining down at Donghyuck.

“No you.”

“Why did you call?” Johnny puts up with a lot of bullshit from Donghyuck, if only because Donghyuck will do any job Johnny offers him. “I saw you were on the news the other day, and I heard about you leaving your pants at Mark’s place.” Donghyuck flares bright orange.

“Who told you that?” he screeches, cereal nearly flying out of his lap as he stands up to aggressively point at Johnny.

“I follow Mark on SpaceStory,” Johnny pouts. “It was hilarious to see though. I can’t believe you took one of his teeth.” Johnny shakes his head and Donghyuck simmers back to his chair.

“He was being a bitch,” Donghyuck mumbles and Johnny bursts out laughing.

“You are truly one of a kind, y’know that right?”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck replies, trying to hide his smile behind the cereal box. He loved getting praised often, especially for something that Donghyuck takes pride in. Donghyuck is the only one like himself and he loves that.

“Okay, but actually, why did you call?” Johnny asks, and Donghyuck uses the scroller on the dashboard to pull up the files Johnny had sent him about each of the victims.

“Well, first off, to tell you that Mark fucking moved, he doesn’t live on Lambda Velorum anymore. Now he’s living on Denebola and it was pure chance that I even ran into him,” Donghyuck rambles. “But the other reason is that I need to know where Jeno works. If his item is a cigarette box, he probably keeps it with him at work when he goes to smoke. All of these items are of some use to the species they were given to. Chenle just keeps a collection of jewels anyway, so it doesn’t matter what he’s given, but Mark got a watch. Not something super fancy either. Hell, you’ve seen the pictures, it’s a gold wrap watch, so it’s fancy, but it’s not as showy as what Jaemin got.” Donghyuck knows he raises a good point when one of Johnny’s eyebrows quirks before he goes to type on his computer.

“Let me see,” Johnny says, eyes looking off screen and scanning through his racks and racks of information. “It says here that Jeno works at Ten’s Secret.” Donghyuck gags and Johnny has to stifle a laugh. “You know what this means?”

“Sadly yes,” Donghyuck mutters. “I’m really going to have to pretend to need lingerie. What even is the point of it though? It’s a whole lot of work if you ask me.”

“I have a feeling this will somehow be an even bigger hot mess than the other two incidents thus far.”

“Yeah, yeah, bye,” Donghyuck chirps, hanging up on Johnny mid laugh. Glancing at the map, Donghyuck sees that he’s almost to the point where he actually needs to fly his ship. Switching off auto-pilot, Donghyuck steers down into the atmosphere of Vega. There’s a security checkpoint, but Donghyuck quickly flashes his fake merchant license so he can move about his day.

Parking the ship in the Ten’s Secret garage, Donghyuck gives himself a little pep talk. He can do this. There’s nothing weird about pretending to buy lingerie. Where’s that one ‘Do It For Him’ meme? Donghyuck could use one of those right now as some encouragement.

Donghyuck grabs his wallet that hasn’t been used in ages, some sunglasses to cover up part of his face, his key and is out of the door. The ship is locked and Donghyuck takes a look around to see where he is.

The parking garage is all gray and shadowy, rendering the sunglasses useless, but Donghyuck is nothing if not stubborn so he leaves them on anyway. Walking down the stairs to the bottom floor, Donghyuck takes deep breaths. He’s done so many other terrible and embarrassing things before, so why is this one thing so hard for him to do? For fucks sake, he literally ran around Denebola in his underwear yesterday.

Stepping out into the sun, Donghyuck squints even while wearing the sunglasses. The street is lined with shops, bustling full of people and Donghyuck’s eyes fixate on the pink and black sign across the street from him. The very fact that Ten Industries even owns their own brand of lingerie is patently ridiculous. Why would you need to expand into that market when you’re already the most powerful company in all of the galaxies?

Donghyuck crosses the street, almost getting run over by several hover cars, but he doesn’t get run over, so that gives him no real fear in doing it again next time. If there ever will be a next time because Donghyuck is quite possibly going to die from embarrassment.

Stepping into the store, Donghyuck is overwhelmed by the smell of perfume, sheer amount of lace on mannequins, and bold colors. Donghyuck is brought out of his trance, by none other than Jeno.

“How may I help you today, sir?” asks Jeno, smiling at Donghyuck with his arguably very cute eye smile. Jeno is a Neguine, so he’s automatically cute to almost every species. With white blond hair, kitty ears and a soft tail Jeno is going to be the hardest to rob. Donghyuck has a conscious, sue him. Jeno is dressed in a lace bodysuit and shorts, also white. To be honest, Jeno cleans up nicely and Donghyuck is pleased that someone has fashion sense.

“Uhhh, I need some help picking out some lingerie,” Donghyuck says, body definitely a strong shade of orange and Jeno’s ears twitch in curiosity.

“I would assume that’s why you’re here,” Jeno purrs, tail swaying lightly behind him. Tails always throw Donghyuck off, like how do some species just grow another  _ thing _ on their bodies? But Donghyuck bites back any strange questions about how tails work and nods at Jeno. “I can help you with that. Do you have someone in mind?”

Jeno steps closely to Donghyuck and Donghyuck has to restrain himself from stepping away because good god are Neguines intense. Donghyuck doesn’t hang out with them often, but he’s never had one come onto him so hard and it’s baffling enough to almost knock Donghyuck off his game. Almost.

Regaining his composure, Donghyuck says, “I’m thinking of someone around your height and build. I want to find the  _ perfect _ thing for them.” Donghyuck smirks and bites his lip, trying to hold back a cough from the perfume. “I’m sure you could be very helpful.” Leaning closer into Jeno’s space, Donghyuck tries to be as alluring as he can. Maybe it works or maybe Jeno sees Donghyuck as an opportunity to get some money (it’s absolutely the second one, none of what Donghyuck is doing is attractive at all).

Donghyuck tries to steal a glance behind the counter, and sees a glinting silver cigarette box, nearly crying with his good luck. Now, he has to get behind the counter somehow. The problem is the store is packed and there are other Neguine working on stuff.

“What are you looking at?” Jeno asks, drawing Donghyuck’s attention back to him.

“Oh, nothing, there’s just a lot to look at in the store,” Donghyuck lies. Jeno clearly doesn’t believe him though and he follows Donghyuck’s eyes to behind the counter.

“I see what you want!” Jeno chirps. “Follow me.” Then Jeno is dragging Donghyuck back past all of the lingerie, workers and the counter to a supply room. He gestures for Donghyuck to sit on a single chair in the center of the dimly lit room. All around him are brown boxes stacked full of clothing, some with lingerie strewn across them, but that’s not what Donghyuck’s focus is on.

“Uhh, what’s going on?” Donghyuck asks, and Jeno presses a finger to his lips. Jeno straddles Donghyuck’s hips and kisses Donghyuck lightly. Donghyuck doesn’t kiss back because he has no idea what the  _ fuck _ is going on. Gripping Donghyuck’s shoulders Jeno pulls his mouth away.

“Oh, I see what’s going on,” Jeno murmurs.

“Okay, well please enlighten me because I have no clue what’s going on,” Donghyuck whines, leaning his head back on the chair.

“I know why you’re here,” Jeno says, decidedly proud of himself.

“The last time someone said that to me, they lost a tooth--”

“And you lost your pants,” Jeno interrupts. Donghyuck’s jaw drops. “I’m friends with Mark on SpaceStory, so I heard about everything.”

“It seems like everyone is friends with Mark on SpaceStory,” Donghyuck mutters. “Still doesn’t explain why you kissed me though.”

“Because you clearly have feelings for--” This time it’s Donghyuck that sticks a finger to Jeno’s lips. “I won’t say his name fine,” Jeno pouts and Donghyuck removes his finger. “As I was saying, you like him and that’s why you want my cigarette box. I’ll happily give it to you under a few conditions--”

“Wait, but you’re friends with he-who-shall-not-be-named that caused this whole mess in the first place. Why help me?” Donghyuck asks. Jeno had been entrusted with the cigarette box for the very reason that he-who-shall-not-be-named didn’t want Donghyuck to have it. Jeno is being a shitty friend and Donghyuck is totally here for it, as it’s helping him.

“Yes, we are friends, but he’s been kinda annoying recently and you’ve already gotten stuff from Chenle and Mark. I just hope you steal one of Jaemin’s teeth too. He’s the most annoying and I honestly can’t stand him,” Jeno admits, tail swishing shyly. “Anyways, my conditions are: buy some lingerie for  _ him _ , I’ve fit him before and know what he would look good in, and for you to be my plus one to Jaemin’s party next week.”

That’s a lot of information for Donghyuck to take in at once, so his jaw drops and Jeno has to close it before he realizes that he actually has to answer Jeno. But he cannot be blamed here, he just found out his best friend has been fit for lingerie at a high end boutique. What else could he have been hiding? And Donghyuck was already planning to sneak into Jaemin’s party, but having a plus one definitely made things easier for him.

“Okay, deal,” Donghyuck says. “But can you please get off my lap?” Jeno scrambles off him, tail between his legs and ears curved down, and Donghyuck stands up, brushing off his pants. “Just show me what you think he will like.”

Jeno squeals and drags Donghyuck back into the store. He grabs several sets of multicolored things covered in lace, ruffles, sequins and god knows what else. Donghyuck lets himself be dragged around the store until he swears he can smell colors, and Jeno takes him back to the front counter.

“Ahh,” Jeno says, stacking everything on top of the counter. Donghyuck stares longingly at the cigarette box and Jeno reaches back to grab it, placing it next to everything else. “I’ve measured him before, so I’m sure everything will look amazing on him.”

“Jeno, I’m  _ not _ into him,” Donghyuck protests, as Jeno scans the pieces and places them into pink and black bags.

“Uh huh, sure,” Jeno says, scanning something with so many straps it doesn’t even look like clothing. “You didn’t kiss me back and I know  _ I’m _ hot shit.” Donghyuck sighs, he won’t be able to change Jeno’s mind here at all. Once everything is all bagged, and Jeno shows Donghyuck how much everything is going to cost, and Donghyuck nearly chokes. Rest in peace, his bank account, that’s for sure. 

“Here,” Donghyuck thrusts his card at Jeno, not even wanting to do the math for how much currency will be left in his bank account. “Just take it and hand me those bags.” Jeno does as asked and Donghyuck finds his arms full of five bags in pink and black. Jeno smiles as he hand’s back the card and Donghyuck rolls his eyes.

“Thank you for shopping with us. I placed the cigarette box in the bottom of one of the bags,” Jeno says with a wink. Of course he wouldn’t tell Donghyuck which bag. Now Donghyuck has to look through all of the bags for the box. Donghyuck gives a small wave and walks out of the store.

Breathing in fresh air is like a slap in the face, but Donghyuck can’t be more grateful. He struggles to open the stairwell door, but after that he walks up the stairs and back to his ship with no problems. He sets down the bags to pull out his key, but the door is opened and Donghyuck grabs the bags again.

Donghyuck isn’t even all the way in the ship before Johnny’s voice is pinging out of the system. He rolls his eyes, only half listening to Johnny as he closes the ship and boots it up, ready to fly to some other planet to kill some time for a few days before heading off to Saiph.

“Donghyuck are you even listening to me?” Johnny demands and Donghyuck hums in acknowledgement. “Okay, so you’re not listening. What I said is that Yukhei is coming to hunt you down. Someone got word that you’re on Vega, told him, so now you have the number one cop in the galaxies coming after your ass.”

“What?” Donghyuck screeches, spinning around to look at Johnny on the monitor. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was trying to but you weren’t listening at all,” Johnny protests. “He’s probably already on Vega at this point, and you could’ve known sooner if you had a goddamn cellphone.”

“Okay okay,” Donghyuck says, getting a hold of his breathing. “Where is he? I’ll meet up with him right now and take him down. Easy peasy.” Johnny looks at Donghyuck with disbelief in his eyes.

“I’m not going to be able to change your mind, am I?”

“Nope, so just tell me.” Donghyuck smiles and plops down in his captains chair, finally feeling okay when looking at his co-captains chair.

“If you go back to Ten’s Secret and walk like one block back to The Old Haunt; it’s a bar and according to my sources Yukhei is there,” Johnny explains and Donghyuck’s eye twitches at hearing Yukhei’s name, but he suppresses any emotional responses that might come next. “Don’t get killed Donghyuck,” Johnny warns. “Otherwise I’ll have to revive you, only to kill you again.”

Donghyuck laughs, even though it hurts a little bit. He salutes Johnny and ends the call.

Bounding right back out of his ship, Donghyuck locks the doors and heads down the same stairs as before. He’s positive Jeno tipped Yukhei off, but Jeno seems like a chaotic neutral, so he gets a pass for now (plus he gave up the cigarette box surprisingly easily). 

Donghyuck finds The Old Haunt easily enough, the dark green sign and stained glass windows standing out amongst the glitz of the rest of the street. He steps into the bar and pushes his sunglasses up to the top of his head. He recognizes Yukhei sitting at the bar.

Yukhei is a Luidae, meaning he’s essentially living metal. Beautiful grey skin with a few bright blue green veins decorating his skin. Right cheek made of solid metal that bleeds down his neck, metal mixing with skin. Right eye, a swirling mix of colors, changing from second to second while the left one is solid red. Wearing only a skin tight white tee and black jeans, Donghyuck can see his solid metal left arm.

Joy rushes through Donghyuck’s veins as he steps closer to Yukhei. He smirks and clears his throat, drawing the attention of Yukhei, the bartender and a few patreons.

“Yukhei Wong. Just the man I was looking for.”


	2. Vidi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of backstory, another robbery, and a party that's not really a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tEEEEEEEEE!!!! happy birthday!!!! you're offically 19 owo,,, thank you so much for being such an epic friend, great supportor of all the stupid things i do and yknow just being flat out amazing!!!! i hope you have the happiest day full of too much reading because everyone wrote you stuff and stuffed full of cake :3 i love you so much <3
> 
> ps. once again ty brooke for beta-ing <3 ilyt

“Yukhei Wong. Just the man I was looking for.” Yukhei’s brow quirks up and Donghyuck is relived by how similar he is to when they first met.

“And why are you looking for me?” Yukhei asks as Donghyuck saunters up to the bar.

“Well, it’s more like you’re looking for me,” Donghyuck suggests, lips quirking up from the sheer joy shooting through him like lightning. Yukhei’s face changes and Donghyuck bites his lip.

“You’re Haechan?”

“One and only.” Donghyuck laughs. “I figured it might be better for me to come find you rather than you trying to find me.”

“Well, you’re under arrest for robbery, breaking and entering, and assault of a citizen,” Yukhei counters, standing from his bar stool and reaching for his taser. One of Donghyuck’s least favorite human inventions. It isn’t a quick and easy death, nor will it kill him at all. Just electrocute him. Being tasered is a literal pain in Donghyuck’s ass (and yes he is speaking from experience here).

“That’s great and all, but you’re coming with me instead,” Donghyuck declares, eyes focused on Yukhei’s hand, still resting on his taser.

“And why would I do that?” Yukhei scoffs.

“Because I’m doing this for your own good.” Then Donghyuck’s leg is swinging to kick the back of Yukhei’s knees (always been a weak spot for him, quite annoying at times) and he’s tackling Yukhei to the floor. Why is this floor so sticky? Don’t they ever fucking clean up in here? Yukhei is struggling underneath Donghyuck’s hold, Donghyuck’s legs caging his chest in while Donghyuck fumbles for Yukhei’s right ear. Before Donghyuck can connect with his ear, Yukhei bites Donghyuck’s left arm.

Donghyuck grabs Yukhei’s ear, ignoring the black blood seeping from his arm and fumbles until he hits the button he always knew he could find. Why Yukhei had been built with a pause button he’ll have no idea, but it only lasts for ten minutes, so every second counts.

Taking a quick look around the bar, Donghyuck sees several people with their phones out, so he hops off Yukhei, jumps onto the bar and grabs a bottle of something. The bar tender doesn’t look pleased, yet the patreons seem intriged.

“All of you put your fucking phones away or I will personally smash your face in with a bottle,” Donghyuck declares. No one puts down their phone. Donghyuck holds the bottle by the neck and smashes it on the side of the counter, giving him the perfect weapon. This scares a few people off, but not all of them. “Don’t fuck with me.” Donghyuck gets off the counter, steps over Yukhei’s body, and walks right up to a Xorblegot and sticks the bottle in their face. “I said, don’t fuck with me.” They drop their phone and Donghyuck backs off, now more concerned with Yukhei’s body laying on the ground.

Donghyuck sighs. He did this to himself. He just had to be dramatic and couldn’t have lured Yukhei back to his ship. Hefting Yukhei over one shoulder is extremely difficult and mildly embarassing because it takes a few tries before Yukhei is saddled on correctly. No one is taking him seriously anymore and their phones are back out.

Johnny is definitely going to call about this.

Namely because this wasn’t a part of the plan at all. But when does Donghyuck ever stick to the plan in the first place? Johnny can’t be that mad because his expectations are already low. That makes Donghyuck feel a little bit better, even puts a little skip in his step as he lugs Yukhei through the streets of Vega.

Once again, Donghyuck ignores any strange looks given to him by passersby. He doesn’t care if they call the fucking police on him. He has an agenda to complete and that means putting Yukhei in the prisoner cell of his ship. And it wasn’t like this would be Yukhei’s first trip there. More like third.

At least, Donghyuck thinks it’s the third. One time when they were drunk, one time when Yukhei was being a bitch. So yeah, this would be the third time.

That gets Donghyuck thinking though; has anyone besides Yukhei been put in the prisoner cell? Hopefully he-who-shall-not-be-named would be put there later but that’s only if things go wrong. (Go wrong meaning Donghyuck even runs into he-who-shall-not-be-named at all. But Donghyuck has to go to Jaemin’s stupid party and he-who-shall-not-be-named is going to be there because it’s the event of existence or something.)

When Donghyuck gets back to his ship, Yukhei is still knocked out, but he only has around two more minutes (how he got Yukhei here so fast is honestly impressive considering Yukhei is like a ton of bricks(Donghyuck told him he didn’t need that much muscle, but did he listen to Donghyuck? No). You could probably say that this whole situation started because Yukhei doesn’t know how to listen to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck unlocks the ship and drags Yukhei down the stairs to the supply area of the ship. Since Donghyuck’s ship isn’t very big all of the storage is kept on the lower level (including the storage of species). The cell door is locked and Donghyuck is about to leave, but Yukhei wakes up looking super pissy.

“Sup, big guy,” Donghyuck comments, leaning back against a wall. He really need to get back upstairs and get them off this fucking planet before police really do get called, but the opportunity to make fun of Yukhei is too strong.

“What the fuck?” Yukhei says, standing up and grabbing onto the bars of the cell. Donghyuck’s ship may be a hunk of scrap metal floating through space, but this cell is top notch. No species can break out of it from the inside because the inside is specifically designed to weaken species down over time. If left in there long enough Yukhei won’t be able to even shake his fist at Donghyuck, which isn’t what he wants at all, but it would make making fun of Yukhei easier.

Before when he would clown Yukhei, Yukhei would pick him up and hold him upside down until he gave in and apologized. And that isn’t fun at all if Yukhei can’t lift him up… Donghyuck needs to stop thinking about things that are irrelevant because he’s going to literally get himself killed if he gets distracted.

“Look, dude,” Donghyuck says, holding up his hands in a peace offering. “I did what had to be done. It isn’t my fault you were a pain in my ass like usual.”

“Like usual?” Yukhei asks, anger fading to confusion. “I don’t know you. We’ve never met. I don’t associate with criminals.” Taking a seat on the cot in the cell, Yukhei stares down Donghyuck, gaze going right through Donghyuck like a laser. Donghyuck doesn’t like lasers either. Slicing species in half with light isn’t something he likes to do.

Donghyuck may be a criminal, but he has never murdered someone. Okay, wait-- yeah, no murder of any species that Donghyuck values the life of. There have been a few that kinda had it coming, so they don’t count. At least in Donghyuck’s book that is. Law enforcement mostly think otherwise though. Luckily for Donghyuck, Antares doesn’t give a fuck about anyone’s life. Donghyuck almost snickers at that sentence. It’s so problematic but good god isn’t it funny?

Not bothering to reply to Yukhei, Donghyuck heads back up the stairs of the ship and starts piloting off of Vega. He has to set a course for Othithious now, which is three full days away from Vega. He could stop off on Procyon on the way though. Yukhei is gonna hate his guts not matter what, but he has to do something to at least appease his conscious. Yes, Donghyuck has a conscious. It’s just a bit more fucked up than the normal species, though you could argue that Gruzeves aren’t normal to begin with. According to the media, at least.

Donghyuck debates between calling Johnny or flicking on the news until they are in autopilot mode. Ultimately calling Johnny wins out as Johnny is going to beat his ass in a few days anyway, what’s the harm in giving him another reason to.

“Donghyuck?” Johnny asks when he answers the call, eye brows furrowing. “I’m surprised to hear from you. I feel like I have to get all of my information about you from the news and SpaceStory these days. And you don’t even have SpaceStory.”

“Haha, very funny, Johnny,” Donghyuck replies sarcastically. “I’m actually here to tell you how things went with Yukhei.”

“I’m assuming the worst, just so you know.” Donghyuck can tell Johnny is bracing himself for anything, his jaw is tight and his ears are a light purple.

“I kidnapped him.” Johnny visibly relaxes and Donghyuck is shocked. “Why do you look more relieved now?”

“Because I naturally assumed you killed him and all of my hard work would be for nothing,” Johnny counters, looking mildly offended.

“Your hard work?” Donghyuck asks, baffled. “I’m the one risking my life on a daily basis! You sit and type on your laptop and act emo over your breakup, which you still won’t tell me who you were dating.”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is Yukhei is safe and you’re on your way to uhhh, Othithious, right?” Donghyuck doesn’t like the way Johnny is so squirrelly about his personal life. He knows close to everything about Donghyuck, but he can’t even open up about what’s causing him so much distress. Kind of a dick move if you ask Donghyuck.

“Yeah, I gotta go pay Jisung a visit, but I’m stopping off in Procyon first,” Donghyuck comments. “I don’t need to be in Saiph for days and it’s only a few hours from Othithious, so… Plus I don’t really wanna see Jisung that much.”

“I don’t blame you,” Johnny replies. “Cumeasier are always so frustrating to be around because they will not turn off their pheromones no matter how nicely you ask them. It drives me up the fucking wall, honestly. But don’t you have to deal with Yukhei now?” Donghyuck sighs and looks away from the screen, choosing to stare at his nails instead.

“Yeah, I suppose I do.”

“Are you gonna try and tell him the truth?”

“I feel like it might be pointless, but I want to anyway on the off chance that helps in someway. Maybe it won’t help him, but it’ll help me at least. I have all this baggage from him, I would at least like him to know that I’m extremely sorry for the way things went down,” Donghyuck confesses and it feels a bit like baring his soul to the world, but who else will he bare his soul to? Yukhei is convinced he’s evil and his parents are who knows where, probably dead.

Donghyuck takes one last look at Johnny before hanging up the call. Johnny will understand. He doesn’t doubt that at all, so he walks back down to the cell and puts all of his defenses right back up. Only Johnny will get to see him like that, Yukhei normally would be able to, but these aren’t normal times.

“Where are you taking me?” Yukhei asks. “If you want to kill me do it now, I’m useless to you unless I cooperate and I won’t cooperate with a thug.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes, already tired of the noble act Yukhei’s putting on.

“Right now, we are going somewhere special.” Donghyuck would be worried about Yukhei having a phone, but he’s pretty sure he saw it on the counter of the bar. “Strip. I gotta make sure you have no trackers on you.” Yukhei looks uncomfortable, but Donghyuck only sighs.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before so calm down,” Donghyuck says. “Just take off your clothes and hand me them through the bars and I’ll give you some other ones to wear.” Yukhei obliges, angling his body away from Donghyuck the entire time.

Donghyuck thinks back to the times where him and Yukhei would stand in the bathroom together, shirtless and try to compare who had gotten more buff. It would always be Yukhei but sometimes he would indulge Donghyuck and pretend he had magically gotten super muscular and they would laugh together and get ready for their day and-- Donghyuck misses it. He misses them. He hadn’t realized just how much until now and the feelings come back and choke him.

He can’t breathe. He misses Yukhei so much. Of course this happens while Yukhei is right in front of him, naked, looking expectantly for new clothes. Donghyuck swallows dry and grabs Yukhei’s extra set of clothes from the supply room. He tosses them over and resists the urge to hug Yukhei. There’s several things problematic about that.

Number one, Yukhei is naked which would be weird no matter the other circumstances. Number two, and probably more important, Yukhei doesn’t remember him at all.

Donghyuck just wants his fucking best friend back.

Why is that so much work? He’s used to stealing, but not with the stakes being so high, but not without his partner, his everything. Yukhei. Everything is becoming overwhelming fast and Yukhei is looking at Donghyuck weird, but for Donghyuck everything is clicking in place. Somehow everything slides into allignment for him. Donghyuck clutches at his chest and slides down against the wall to the floor.

Donghyuck is in love with Yukhei.

He wants to cry everything, sucks so much and by god, he will fucking make sure Renjun ever regrets getting involved in Yukhei’s life. Renjun has no right to Yukhei anymore, Yukhei is Donghyuck’s and that won’t be changing anytime soon.

“Yukhei,” Donghyuck says, voice soft and not looking at him. “How far back does your memory go?”

“Why do you ask?” Yukhei’s tone is guarded and Donghyuck knows why. Logically he shouldn’t give up any information to his capture, but Donghyuck just needs to know.

“Just answer the question.”

“Only back six months ago. I was in a accident in the field and lost my memories. How did you know to ask about that? I assume you do your research on who’s ever after you, but it doesn’t quite make sense here.” Donghyuck can practically see Yukhei putting together the pieces in his mind. He’s always been such a smart boy, and it’s one of Donghyuck’s favorite things about him. “Did we used to know each other when I was in police school?”

“You’ve got the right idea,” Donghyuck says, standing up to stand as close to Yukhei’s cell as he dares. “You were my old partner, then your friend, Renjun destroyed your memories to keep you away from me.” That isn’t the full story, but Yukhei doesn’t need to know about Donghyuck’s stupid mistakes right now. He just needs to trust Donghyuck, just a little bit.

“So, you kidnap me to get my memories back?” Yukhei pries, brows furrowing in confusion.

“All the stuff I’m stealing has your memories in them. I already got some of your memories from Chenle, Mark, and Jeno. Speaking of Jeno, he said you like lingerie for some reason and forced me to buy you some. So, if you ever wanna feel sexy or whatever I have bags of it, just sitting in my room.” At this Yukhei laughs and clutches his chest from how much he’s giggling.

“That’s hilarious, honestly. Like the part about the lingerie, not the memory stealing. But what reason do I have to believe you over Renjun?” Yukhei asks, eyes glinting and Donghyuck knows he’s at least made progress on him.

“You’ll find out tomorrow,” Donghyuck says with wink, bidding Yukhei a goodbye for the night.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Donghyuck really isn’t someone to do all kinds of sweet and thoughtful gestures for someone, but Yukhei is someone special. For fucks sakes, Donghyuck just realized he’s in love with him less than twelve hours ago. And now they are almost an hour away from Procyon, but Donghyuck bored, so he’s sitting across from Yukhei, back against the wall parallel to Yukhei.

“How did I lose my memory?” Yukhei asks and Donghyuck bites his lip. He really didn’t want to get into this with Yukhei, but he didn’t really have an option now, and he wants Yukhei’s trust more than anything else.

“We were trying to rob some rich family on Mizar, Renjun’s home planet, but they had extra security we couldn’t have known about. J-- our information specialist didn’t have any idea about the changes and he’s the best in the business; it would have been a death sentence for anyone else. I changed the plan to get out at the last minute and we split up.” Donghyuck pauses, swallowing down the lump in his throat as he recalls what’s arguably the worst day of his life. “I got back to the ship, but you didn’t. I couldn’t stay and wait any longer, so I had to leave Mizar. I found out later through our information specialist that Renjun had found you and split apart your memories. That’s why your eye changes color if you’ve ever wondered.”

Yukhei is contemplative before speaking. “So, I haven’t always been like this? Like with my eye?”

“No,” Donghyuck replies. “Both your eyes used to be red. We would joke about you being the sexy version of Terminator.”

“Terminator?” Oh, yeah. Yukhei doesn’t remember. Why would he remember some Earth movie from thousands of years ago?

“It’s an old human movie. Like the terminator has been sent back in time from the future to kill this woman because she is the mother of the kid who destroys everything in the future. It’s better if you watch it.”

“Maybe we could watch it together again,” Yukhei suggests shyly and Donghyuck’s heart nearly flies out of his ribcage. “I don’t remember watching it for the first time, so I could enjoy it again.”

“Yeah, you’ve seen it enough times to have the entire script memorized.” Donghyuck thinks back fondly to Yukhei’s Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions and smiles. They weren’t even that good, they were just amusing as Yukhei tried to even speak English along with the accent.

“Oh, wow,” Yukhei mumbles and suddenly the moment feels stale because Donghyuck has all of the experience here, he knows everything about their relationship, but Yukhei is more fumbling around in the dark, not knowing Donghyuck even existed yesterday.

“I have to make a stop somewhere,” Donghyuck says, standing up. “And for the record, my real name is Donghyuck. Haechan is a stage name of sorts.”

“That makes sense; you’re a criminal.” Donghyuck knows Yukhei doesn’t mean it in that way, but it still makes Donghyuck’s insides rattle. His Yukhei knows that there’s so much more to him than that. “Did I have a stage name as well?”

“Yeah, it was Lucas. You picked the name after George Lucas, a filmmaker in the same period as Terminator. You said you really liked all of his movies, so why not become a criminal named after him.” Donghyuck is hesitant to leave, lingering in the doorway. “But I really must go now.”

Donghyuck heads back up the stairs to main floor of the ship and feels himself go back to normal, put his heart back in a box. The ship needs to be properly landed on Procyon or Donghyuck could be fined which would be a total pain in the ass for him. He wouldn’t be paying the fine at all, but it would make it a little harder to stop off on this planet when he needed to get supplies or Yukhei decides he misses home.

Neither Donghyuck or Yukhei have great relationships with their families, but Yukhei sometimes likes to walk through the streets and just take in home. Donghyuck doesn’t blame him, it’s just not something he can relate to at all. Procyon actually has some kind of boarder check, so Donghyuck uses his UR to get passed it.

As far as the people of Procyon knew, Donghyuck is just the adopted brother of some Luidae who wanted a little Gruzeves for fun. Donghyuck doesn’t really care though. He gets off his ship, locks it, and walks through the familar streets of Procyon.

Donghyuck can’t be bothered to learn the name of every street and area of places that he goes, but he’ll always remember the way to Zonsier. It’s a small mom and pop food shack and they make the best Zonsier in any of the galaxies.

If there’s anything to prove that Donghyuck knows Yukhei, this would be it. Donghyuck stops in front of the where he thinks the place is, but instead of Zonsier, he sees Ten’s Zonsier. What the fuck. Donghyuck suppresses all of the anger in his system. That can wait until later. Or maybe he could get it out now and then go back to his ship.

Fucking Ten. Spoiling everything for Donghyuck left and right. The galaxy would be such a better place without him or his company polluting it. Donghyuck still can’t believe that Jeno convinced him to buy Ten branded lingerie, but it was for Yukhei (both literally and to get the cigarette box), so Donghyuck is fine with it. Like, he hates that he did it, but Yukhei is worth anything and everything as cheesy as that sounds. Yeah, that’s way too cheesy. Pretend Donghyuck didn’t say that.

Donghyuck strolls up to the front of the food stall and looks at the menu. It’s just as simple as it was before, but Donghyuck is grateful for that, as it’s some semblence of normality. Some sense of how things used to be. Back before Renjun whisked Yukhei away from Donghyuck. Back before Yukhei and Donghyuck could be anything more than friends. Pushing those thoughts away, Donghyuck orders his and Yukhei’s usual, ready to hand over the payment before the Luidae at the stall stops him.

“I haven’t seen you around here for awhile, Hyuckie,” they say. “Where’s that big Luidae that’s always following you around like a little Qeclese?” The very thought of them remembering him and Yukhei after all this time is almost enough to bring Donghyuck to tears. And Yukhei being compared to a Qeclese is cute as Qeclese are known for having strong attachments to their friends and even stronger connections to their partners. They are generally extremely loyal and love on a whole other level. Funnily enough, Renjun is a Qeclese.

“Ah, yeah,” Donghyuck replies. “Things have been very busy recently, family stuff and all that.” Donghyuck doesn’t feel bad for lying to the Luidae if only because Yukhei is his family and he’s been having family issues in that regard. But even if Donghyuck did feel bad, he would have to suck it up because he can’t go around annoucing he’s a thief. Doesn’t go over to well with people. “And Yukhei is just feeling a bit under the weather, so I’m bringing him some of his favorite food.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet of you. Food’s on me.” Donghyuck tries to protest, but they don’t let him get a word in edge-wise. “I won’t back down.”

“Fine.” Donghyuck gives in, it’s been a long week, so free, hot food would be amazing right about now. The Luidae hands over his food and Donghyuck gives a little bow in thanks. Bows are mostly outdated all across the galaxies, but they were still seen as a sign of great respect and politeness some places. Donghyuck can only hope that Procyon is one of those planets.

Walking back to his ship, Donghyuck enjoys his last breaths of Procyon air for a while. He only comes here when he needs to (aka when Yukhei is home sick, so not that often. Yukhei misses his home a lot more than he lets on, but he pretends to be perfectly fine because Donghyuck is fine. He isn’t but that’s not the point).

Donghyuck opens up his ship, he powers everything back on, not needing to use the password because he’s been less than three hours but makes sure to lock everything while he idles. He walks down to Yukhei’s cell and sits much closer to him than last time. Not enough for Yukhei to reach through the bars and touch him, but close enough.

“I hope your tastes still stay the same,” Donghyuck mumbles, opening up the bag of food and sliding Yukhei’s food up to the bars and Yukhei picks it up and moves it through the bars carefully.

“What’s this?” Yukhei asks, opening the package. “Oh.”

“Yeah, Procyon is on the way to Othithious, so I thought you would appreciate some of your favorite food.” Donghyuck tries to shrug it off like it isn’t a big deal, but he did put some thought into this.

“Thank you,” Yukhei says, shockingly genuine. “What are you trying to gain from this?” The question hits Donghyuck like a truck. Yukhei still isn’t the Yukhei he knows, he’s this weird version of him. Visually the same, same personality, but not the same.

“I’m not trying to gain anything except your trust,” Donghyuck spits back. “I get why you don’t trust me, but you really are my ex partner.”

“Do you have any SpaceStory’s to prove we even knew each other?” Yukhei prompts.

“Not of my own. I don’t believe in having cellphones on board because they can be tracked--”

“And you’re a criminal.”

“Yeah.” Donghyuck draws out the word, really disliking Yukhei completing his sentences. He stares Yukhei down, trying to really understand him. He acts like he trusts Donghyuck somewhat, or at least understands him, but he doesn't really want to think of himself as like Donghyuck. Because god forbid that Yukhei used to be someone on the wrong side of the law. For fucks sakes, they joined this together and Yukhei didn't used to be so moral about everything. Maybe because of his position and the lies Renjun has fed him, that's why he's so in denial about being involved with Donghyuck.

Yukhei takes a bite of his food and Donghyuck mimics him, too swept up in his thoughts to even attempt any more form of conversation. Who cares if they didn't finish their conversation properly. Donghyuck sure doesn't. Because nothing is normal now, so what's one more convention broken?

They eat their food in silence, quiet only broken by the soft sound of eating. Donghyuck finishes first, but he's always been a faster eater than Yukhei, so there's no surprise there. Yukhei likes to savor his food like he's never going to have it again, whereas Donghyuck eats for sustenance, not the experience.

"Did you like it?" Donghyuck asks, if only to fact check his idea from earlier. Yukhei nods and slips the trash back through the bars.

"I think that's the best food I've ever eaten, if I'm being honest with myself," Yukhei admits.

"Well, that is your favorite food," Donghyuck points out. "When I ordered the Luidae working there recognized me and asked where you were. If that helps prove that we know each other at all."

"I mean, you're just saying things to me, I have no idea if any of what you're saying is true. Maybe before I lost my memory I went to that place a lot and you knew that I would like food from there-- I don't know. You have to understand why I'm hesitant to believe you though. Right?" Yukhei has a point, as much as Donghyuck hates to admit it. He's fucking right because if the roles were reversed, Donghyuck would do the exact same things and question everything until he got a proper answer.

"I get it," Donghyuck sighs. "Look at it from my perspective though. I know I'm right and it's driving me crazy not to have my best friend here. Like," Donghyuck pauses to try and formulate his words. "You're right in front of me, but you aren't there in a way. It's still Yukhei Wong in front of me, my favorite species in all of the galaxies, but you don't know me and don't have any of the memories of our experiences together."

Yukhei nods. "Are you sure we were only friends though?" Donghyuck is baffled. What does he mean were they only friends? Last Donghyuck checked it wasn't gay to have a best friend. But who knows, maybe everything changed under his nose (it didn't).

"Yeah," Donghyuck splutters. "We never so much as kissed." Okay that's a minor lie. One time they did get so drunk they kissed a few times (but they did not make out), but the morning after Yukhei didn't remember, so why even bother implanting the idea into this Yukhei (who doesn't remember anything anyway).

"Tell me,” Yukhei says, voice soft. “Did I return your feelings or just ignore them?”

“I don’t know,” Donghyuck confesses, unsure if he should keep speaking. “I only realized them yesterday, so you tell me.”

"I still have all of my feelings from before I lost my memories," Yukhei explains. "I don't remember like anything, but there's a reason I want in my gut to trust you. It's because deep down I already trust you with so much more than just my life. I trust you with everything I've got, but that conflicts with what's going on inside my head." Yukhei drops his head and Donghyuck moves a bit closer, shoving the food boxes to the side.

"It's okay, Yukhei," Donghyuck consoles. "I'm going to get all of your memories back, I promise."

"Really?" Yukhei's eyes shine with unshed tears and he reaches out with one hand through the bars for Donghyuck's hand. Donghyuck moves himself as close as he can get to Yukhei and grabs his hand.

"Really. I love you so much," Donghyuck confesses, choking up a bit. This feels almost like a dream come true. Yukhei leans in so his face lightly touches the bars.

"Kiss me." The words shoot something hot and unfamiliar through Donghyuck's veins. Without thinking he leans in, bars pressing into his cheeks as he lightly touches Yukhei's lips to his. The moment is beautiful and fragile, something as easy to snap as glass--

Then Yukhei is yanking Donghyuck towards the bars, trying to get a grip on him. Donghyuck screams and thrashes against Yukhei's hold on his clothes. He knew it was too good to be true, and tears drip down his cheeks as he pulls away from Yukhei.

"Let go of me!" Donghyuck shrieks.

"Let me out!" Yukhei counters, grunting with the force needed to hold Donghyuck still. He may be small but he is mighty and with one final throw of his weight, he breaks free of Yukhei's hold and rolls across the floor.

"What the fuck?" Donghyuck shouts. "I open up to you and this is how you repay me?"

"Please," Yukhei says, unbelievable casual, tears gone and cold exterior back. "You're my captor and I'm not supposed to try and escape? I thought you knew me." Yukhei moves to sit on his cot and lays down to stare at the ceiling. "Fuck off."

Donghyuck stares open mouthed for a moment too long and Yukhei gives him the finger. Slinking away, Donghyuck heads back up the stairs and to his captain's chair. He's so angry at himself for falling for Yukhei's tricks, but he's also mad at himself for not getting through to Yukhei at all. All he's ever done has been for that stupid fucking Luidae, and this is how he's repaid. Great.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Donghyuck and Yukhei aren't talking, but Donghyuck can't say that it isn't entirely Yukhei's fault. Donghyuck is avoiding him, only coming down near his cell when absolutely necessary.

Whatever. Now Donghyuck is on Othithious, outside of Jisung Park's apartment, sucking on a lollipop (a very yummy human invention) waiting for a way to get in because of course Jisung lives somewhere that needs special objects to be let in.

An elderly Neguine comes walking up to the door and Donghyuck takes his chance. He walks up to them and taps them politily on the shoulder.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, but I forgot my fob back in my apartment. Could I walk in with you?" Donghyuck asks, trying to make his words sound as genuine as he can.

"Oh, of course, sweetie. What apartment are you in?" they ask, running their scanner over the pad next to the front door.

"I'm new so I keep getting the apartments mixed up, but I think I'm in 4C." 4C is Jisung's apartment, so it's a realistic lie. The Neguine guides Donghyuck through the lobby and into the elevator. He bids them goodbye once on the fourth floor.

Standing idly outside Jisung’s apartment is a food delivery guy and that’s where Donghyuck sees his next opportunity.

“Hi, there,” Donghyuck says. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here— I just had to take my trash out and didn’t think you’d get here already.”

“You’re Jisung Park?” the delivery guy asks and Donghyuck nods. Whether or not the guy believes him it doesn’t really matter as he’s not paid enough to really care. He hands over the food and Donghyuck thanks him, still having some manners even if he is a criminal.

The food delivery guy gives Donghyuck a weird look when he doesn’t immediately enter his apartment but still leaves. Then Donghyuck is pounding on Jisung’s door like there is no tomorrow.

Jisung doesn’t even reply but he must be home as he ordered food. Looks like Donghyuck is doing this the old fashioned way and breaking in.

Donghyuck examines the lock on Jisung’s front door. Pretty old style lock if Donghyuck’s being honest. Maybe he could kick Jisung’s door in? That’s wouldn’t be the stealthiest move but it would be fun and probably look very cool. Ultimately cool wins out over stealth and Donghyuck kicks in Jisung's front door.

With the front door open, Donghyuck surveys around the apartment, looking for Jisung or the stupid plant holder he's supposed to find. Why Renjun picked the weirdest objects to store Yukhei's memories in Donghyuck will never know.

Jisung isn't in the front room. He isn't in the kitchen. Donghyuck has to open Jisung's bedroom to find the Cumeasier at all. Jisung's eating a bowl of cereal with no silverware and only using his as Donghyuck says 'hand-mouth.'

"Jisung Park," Donghyuck declares and Jisung looks over Donghyuck boredly and doesn't stop consuming the cereal. "I'm here looking for a priceless plant holder."

"I mean, I figured you were gonna show up here eventually," Jisung sighs and Donghyuck wants to smack him. Mark gets on his last damn nerve, but Jisung's fucking pheromones are gonna make Donghyuck go absolutely insane.

Cumeasier are dark pink with one eye in the center of their forehead and can eat with their mouths and in their hands. It's not entirely Donghyuck's fault he can't stand the smell of Jisung-- Gruvezes are literally allergic to the pheromones if left around them for too long.

"Are you kidding me?" Donghyuck whines. "Who told you? I really wanted this to be a surprise." Jisung laughs, an ugly high pitched sound and Donghyuck cringes.

"I'm just not an idiot, Haechan." Jisung rolls his eyes, still slurping down the fucking cereal. "Chenle gets robbed, Jeno brags about a huge sale on SpaceStory, and literally everything Mark has posted in the past week and a half. It was only a matter of time before you came here for my lovely cereal bowl. You're actually in luck-- I'm almost done." If Donghyuck's jaw could drop to the floor it absolutely would. His jaw would be back on the ground floor outside of the god damn building to be honest.

"So I can just have it?" Donghyuck asks, completely dumbfounded. "Also that's a priceless pot and you’re over here eating out of it?”

“Yeah and?” Jisung counters, blinking (or is it winking?) at Donghyuck. "Also, no, you can't just have it. I expect something in return."

“I hate children,” Donghyuck pouts. "But fine, what do you want? I have some lingerie that's probably too big for you, if you'd like that."

“Aren’t you only two years older than me?” Jisung muses, smirking and slurping the last of the milk for good measure in a way that is particularly painful to Donghyuck's ears.

“Your entire species are a bunch of children, shut the fuck up.” Jisung laughs and Donghyuck rolls his eyes.

"Anyways, just to let you know, Renjun is probably going to be on your ass about the whole kidnapping Yukhei thing. So, watch out when you're at Jaemin's party."

"Oh, now you're offering me advice?" Donghyuck questions. "What do you gain from this?"

"I just want an IOU whenever I need it, no questions asked. You're a thief and have access to things that I might need access too. Promise me that, alright?" Jisung offers and Donghyuck wants to say no so badly, but what other option does he really have?

"How will you hold me accountable?" Donghyuck questions. If Jisung has some dirt on him, or something else that could prevent Donghyuck from getting Yukhei's memories back, he would rather know now.

"Very simple. I know the people who want you and I know a fair bit about you, but I have no reason to turn you over to the authorities if I get what I want from you. Don't worry, Hyuckie, I don't need favors that often and I'm not a dick." Hyuckie. Donghyuck's real nickname, only a few species know that at all, so how Jisung knows is a complete mystery.

"How do you know that?"

"Let's just say I used to be involved with someone that knows quite a bit about you. Now, do we have a deal?"

"Fine. Do you need a method of contact for me? I don't have a cell phone so I'd have to give you my ship's number," Donghyuck sighs. He doesn't really want to give Jisung his ship number either, but what can he do? The number isn't trackable, Donghyuck just naturally assumes Jisung will use it to give him spam calls (that's what Donghyuck would do after all).

"I'll call Johnny and you can explain to him why you're doing me a favor." How the fuck does Jisung know about Johnny? Jisung, as it turns out, might be the biggest threat to Donghyuck's identity.

"Deal." Jisung offers Donghyuck the pot and Donghyuck snatches it and storms out of Jisung's apartment without another word.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Tonight is the night of Jaemin's huge party or whatever it is. Donghyuck didn't even bother to read the copy of the invite Johnny forwarded to him. All he knows is that he has to dress nice, say he's Jeno's plus one and then act normal for the first half of the party while he scopes out everyone. Who knows, maybe he can steal some extra stuff for a little money. Money is always nice.

Donghyuck thinks that might be his quote of the year: money is always nice. It's a universal fact and he gets a little giggle about it since he's literally a thief.

Going downstairs to grab his nice clothes, Donghyuck considers saying goodbye to Yukhei. They haven't really been talking, but Donghyuck figures it's the polite thing to do. He dresses in the tux (a human invention he will rant about another time) in the store room and walks through the hallway to Yukhei's cell.

"Going somewhere?" Yukhei asks, voice hoarse from not using it.

"Yeah, actually. I'm going to Jaemin's party or whatever," Donghyuck replies, fiddling with what he thinks is a cuff link. Yukhei laughs and Donghyuck snaps his head up to look at him.

"That's not a party, Donghyuck. That's a charity event for the foundation of Ten."

"The what now?"

"For some hotshot thief, you aren't up to date on current events at all. Ten opened a charity in his name to help underachieving species all throughout the galaxy-- this is a gala for that charity to get lots of big donations," Yukhei explains, sitting up in his cot to stare at Donghyuck.

"Thank you for telling me." Donghyuck is still pulling at his sleeve and feeling a little awkward around Yukhei.

"For the record, you look very nice. You should probably brush your hair a bit though, and if you have anything to go on your horns that would really tie your look together," Yukhei comments casually.

"I think I have some glitter upstairs," Donghyuck mumbles. Yukhei doesn't reply, and Donghyuck notices how his veins glow a little less bright than normal. He really has to get Yukhei out of that cell sooner rather than later.

Donghyuck heads back upstairs and checks on his stolen objects, all kept away in the safe. He had washed the pot after he got it home, convinced Jisung had put his cooties all over it. Everything else rests in the same state as he had it previously. He closes the safe, locks it and slides the board back over it.

Slipping into the upstairs bathroom, Donghyuck digs around under the counter to try and find the little bottle of horn glitter he had bought literal ages ago with Yukhei while on Arctures. He had only used it once or twice since then but from what he remembers it isn't that hard to use.

Donghyuck opens the container and then glitter ends up flying everywhere because Donghyuck opened it upside down. So now there is glitter on his horns, face, suit and tie. Wonderful. Donghyuck should really try to slip into the party as a disco ball, maybe that would be less conspicuous.

Not bothering to clean up, Donghyuck locks his ship. He hesitates before turning on the voice lock early. Normally he doesn't, but this is some fancy gala, who knows who's gonna be here?

Donghyuck ignores any strange looks as he walks through the streets of Saiph. Yes, he is a Gruzeves covered in glitter, wearing a suit, walking around by himself.

He finds Jaemin's place easily enough-- who else lives in a six story mansion with a huge garden, fountains in the front yard, covered in party decorations. Donghyuck has to admit that the styling of the building looks really nice; it's truly the perfect set up to trap rich people into giving up their money.

Donghyuck spots Jeno idling by the front door, dressed in a floor length dress, elbow length white gloves and large jewels. Jeno waves a gloved hand to Donghyuck and says something to the security guard.

Donghyuck offers Jeno his arm before saying, "Greetings, Jeno. Pink really is your color." Jeno takes Donghyuck's hand and guides them into the gardens.

"Thank you, Donghyuck. You look nice, albeit a bit sparkly." Jeno laughs as they pass life size hedges in the shape of human gods.

"I had an accident with my horn glitter, but I don't have another suit to change into, so I'll pretend it was all intentional and all the rage over on Mizar just for the fun of it."

"Oh Donghyuck," Jeno sighs. "Please just embarrass Jaemin. I would love for something funny to happen to him tonight."

"I don't recall giving you my real name," Donghyuck murmurs as Jeno flags down a waiter carrying flutes of some sort of glowing alcohol. Jeno's tail touches Donghyuck's arm and Donghyuck catches Jeno's drift. They both grab to flutes and the waiter eyes them cautiously.

"I got tipped off by Jisung. I don't really care what your name is, and honestly, I support your goals here. He deserves the truth y'know and you're trying to get him that, so I support you," Jeno reveals. "Now give me those drinks." Jeno downs both of his in ten seconds flat and holds out his hand for more. "I need to be drunk for tonight and you need to be sober, so help a Neguine out here."

Donghyuck sighs and hands them over. "You're right, so just tell me where Jaemin is."

"He's up there." Jeno gestures with his tail towards the large stage in front of them, everyone milling around quieting as the lights lower and Jaemin takes the stage.

"Hello, everyone," Jaemin greets, smile almost blinding. Donghyuck hates it. "I'm pleased to welcome you all to my family's newest annual event; The Charity of Ten's Gala. Tonight we will celebrate and bid on items generously donated by some lovely members of our community. I would like to also give special thanks to the Zhong family for making such a large donation to help make this event happen and to help children all around the galaxies find success in many ways all through the help of Ten, who is here tonight." Everyone cheers and the spotlight that rested on Jaemin moves over to Ten, who is walking on stage like he isn't a terrible species and the entire galaxy should hate him.

Ten is a Meneobil, another species that looks close to human, but he has the added benefits of built in laser hands. He can literally shoot lasers through his palms (another reason that Donghyuck doesn't like lasers).

Donghyuck chooses to ignore Ten talking and turns back to Jeno and says, "Hey, I think Renjun might be here as well and I'm trying to take out two birds with one stone if I could. Do you know where he might be?"

"Look behind me at the bar," Jeno whispers. Donghyuck's eyes scan over the bar and sure enough, there's a lonely looking Qeclese downing shot after shot.

"Thank you, Jeno," Donghyuck replies, lightly touching Jeno's shoulder before going over to the bar. Donghyuck sits down next to Renjun and crosses his fingers that Renjun won't recognize him. They never met previously, but Donghyuck has an inkling about who Renjun is thanks to Yukhei's stories about him.

"If you're gonna sit next to me, buy me a drink at the least," Renjun mumbles.

"Sure thing," Donghyuck replies, and signals the bartender over. "Anything he wants tonight is on me." Donghyuck hands over some card he stole on the walk in and turns back to Renjun.

"What's a pretty Qeclese like you doing out here all alone. Not gonna listen to Ten's shitty speech?" Donghyuck teases. Renjun looks at Donghyuck, not glaring but certainly not amused. This gives Donghyuck a much better look at Renjun. Qeclese are species that feel things, especially love on another level completely to what Donghyuck can comprehend, they have dark purple hair, green skin and vines that seem to grow and wrap around their skin. Another thing about them is that their eyes look like the center of flowers with petal designs swirling into their skin above and below their eyes. Honestly, Renjun is beautiful. Especially now, dressed in a black, long sleeve, sheer shirt and a tight black skirt that shows off his legs very nicely.

"I don't want to be here at all, but I'm stuck here because I'm Jaemin's friend or whatever." Renjun rests his cheek on his palm and stares deep into Donghyuck's black eyes. "Why are you here? I saw you chatting with Jeno a minute ago, and now you're over here trying to chat me up."

"Jeno is a friend of mine and I'm lonely," Donghyuck admits. He's technically telling the truth, but letting Renjun reach the wrong conclusion. "You seem lonely as well, so we might be able to help each other out." Donghyuck looks closer over Renjun's form, trying to find his stupid locket. Aha. Hanging half way down his chest, is a small, silver locket that Donghyuck knows holds the most important of Yukhei's memories. Inside is all of Yukhei's memories of Donghyuck.

"That's very kind of you." Renjun's mouth quirks up into a smile and Donghyuck can see the final thing that makes someone a Qeclese-- two curved canines that angle towards each other on the upper row of Renjun's teeth. A sign of falling in love, fun fact. The sharper the curve, the farther in love you are, and Renjun's are curved to the max. "You could come with me to this backroom if you want." Donghyuck smirks; this is going perfectly.

Renjun takes Donghyuck by the wrist past the bar and through a long hallway until they reach a storage closet. Opening the door, Renjun gestures for Donghyuck to go in first.

"A gentleman, I see." How that phrase even got kept around for that long, Donghyuck has no idea, but it makes Renjun's cheeks flush purple, so win. Renjun slips in behind him and closes the door.

Then Renjun is slamming Donghyuck up against the door. And not in the sexy way.

"Alright, Haechan, the game is up. Give back the goods you stole from my friends and I won't throw your ass in jail," Renjun demands. Well, fuck. Things never go well for Donghyuck though, why is he surprised that this shit happens every goddamn time.

"How did you know I'm Haechan?" Donghyuck asks because if Jisung tipped everyone off he might have to go and silence his ass for good.

"Yukhei told me your species and when I caught you eyeing my locket, I knew for sure it was you," Renjun says, still holding Donghyuck firm against the storage closet door.

"You know why I'm doing this shit though, right? Yukhei deserves to have his own freedom and you stripping him of his memories takes that away from him," Donghyuck rants, finally able to get this stupid weight off his shoulders.

"He doesn't remember me either, asshole," Renjun replies. "He lives on fucking Acrux now and works for the police and if you didn't know I live on Mizar, which is days away."

"It doesn't have to be like this you know," Donghyuck says, trying to get Renjun to empathize with him in some way at all. "Yukhei deserves to remember both of us, and I can tell how much you care for him and that's how much I care for him as well. I hate that he got hurt while with me. It's the thing I beat myself up about all of the time. But please, Renjun, let him go back to normal." Donghyuck sniffles for good measure, accidentally triggering some real tears. He wishes he could wipe his tears, but Renjun has his arms pinned down.

Renjun sighs. "Show me that Yukhei is healthy and I'll give you my locket." Donghyuck cheers and Renjun shoots him a glare. "I know you also have to get something from Jaemin, but I know where he keeps it so you should have no issue getting it." Renjun takes his arms off of Donghyuck and Donghyuck quickly wipes away his tears.

"Follow my lead." Donghyuck is now the one leading Renjun through the halls and back out through the ballroom.

"And our biggest thanks to the Huang family for supporting me and my mission then, now and hopefully for years to come," Donghyuck hears Ten say as he's finishing up his speech.

"Your family supports Ten?" This is practically unbelievable at this point. Of course Renjun's family is involved with him. Icing on the cake or some shit like that.

"Not my choice. I personally find him hella sketchy, but I turn a blind eye since him and Jaemin get along so well," Renjun explains as they walk back past the hedges of gods. "Where's your ship parked?"

"Not far from here, don't worry, princess," Donghyuck retorts, still holding Renjun's wrist. Neither of them have reason to hold onto each other, yet they are both letting it happen.

They reach the ship in record time (the power of speed walking). Donghyuck lets go of Renjun and pulls out the spare key from his pocket. The ship is open and Renjun pushes ahead of Donghyuck, who bites his tongue as Renjun is gonna hand over his locket and he doesn't want to fuck that up.

"Where's Yukhei?"

"Down those stairs and to your left," Donghyuck says and Renjun is racing ahead of him at top speed. Donghyuck follows close to behind, not trying to break his legs on the way down though.

"HAECHAN WHAT THE FUCK?"

“Yeah?” What is Renjun's deal. He was the one to insist he see that Yukhei is fine before handing over any jewels in the first place. But that means Donghyuck has to go back to the party and hunt down Jaemin, which Donghyuck really doesn't want to do. Donghyuck comes up to Renjun, glances at Yukhei's cell, and feels all of the blood drain out of his system.

“Where’s Yukhei?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment your theories for the final chapter *eye emojis* i would love to see what you come up with  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/carrotyeol)  
> [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.qa/carrotyeol)


	3. Vici

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck and Renjun rescue Yukhei

"Where’s Yukhei?" Renjun asks, and Donghyuck stares in shock at the empty cell. The whole cell door is broken off completely, and there's evidence of some kind of struggle.

"I swear to you he was here before the party," Donghyuck defends, holding his protectively in front of his face.

"I believe you. I can see when someone's escaped from a cell, but you've had him for days, so how could he have escaped? Especially when this cell reduces your abilities, the longer you're in it," Renjun ponders, and Donghyuck almost wants to smack him, just for knowing things. It doesn't matter that Donghyuck already knew all of what Renjun is saying, he's just pissed off because Yukhei is gone and Renjun is actually smart.

"So that means someone kidnapped him," Donghyuck concludes. "I have no idea who would have even known I'm here. Like, I know Jeno knew, but that's because I was his plus one—"

"Jeno, that chaotic bitch!" Renjun shrieks. "He brags to me for _days_ that he has some hot species as his plus one and wouldn't tell me who and it's _you._ "

"What is that supposed to mean?" Donghyuck counters, suddenly very defensive of his 'hot species' title.

"It's supposed to mean that he was right, but also a total bitch for inviting you when you're literally the reason Yukhei had to get his memories removed in the first place," Renjun screams. Donghyuck can see Renjun's vines swirling and traveling across his skin, and Donghyuck is sure that if Renjun wasn't wearing long sleeves, his vines would have strangled him by now. But what Renjun said is too important to gloss over.

"Wow," Donghyuck says. "There's so much to unpack here, like the fact you called me hot and the fact that you're blaming me for something _you_ did."

"You're the one that was reckless and got him injured though," Renjun counters.

"I couldn't have predicted what happened, and neither could our information specialist, so it's not on us. There's always more we could have done, but we didn't get the chance as you had already swept Yukhei away from us. From me." Donghyuck is seething so much the room nearly glows orange.

"What I did was to _protect_ him," Renjun says, clearly frustrated with the way this conversation is going. Donghyuck takes a deep breath and looks away from Renjun, eyes falling back to the empty cell.

"It doesn't even matter now," Donghyuck mumbles, showing a strange amount of maturity for the situation. "What I have to worry about now is getting Yukhei back."

"You?" Renjun scoffs. "You clearly can't keep him safe on your own, so I'm coming with you." Donghyuck's jaw drops. He _cannot_ be serious right now. Renjun isn't capable of coming with Donghyuck, he has no training, can't fly, and is the closest thing Donghyuck has to an enemy (no one tell Yukhei though).

"This is absurd. What kinds of skills could you even offer that would help us get Yukhei back?" Donghyuck crosses his arms, thinking he may have cornered Renjun at last.

"I'm the child of a big politician and can clearly travel around any galaxy with no trouble, plus I have access to all of the resources on Mizar." Renjun mimics Donghyuck's body language, but smirks and raises his eyebrow at Donghyuck who scowls and drops his arms.

Renjun _did_ have a few points there, as much as Donghyuck hated to admit it. Worst-case scenario, Donghyuck can just stab Renjun in his sleep. The thought gives Donghyuck a little rush, but he represses the urge to smile.

"So, what's your plan then, Junnie?" Donghyuck asks, and Renjun's mouth twists at the nickname, so Donghyuck would call that a success.

"We have to go back to Jaemin's party first off. I know how to get the jewelry from Jaemin without him noticing because even though I gave him the piece in the first place, he won't give it back without a good reason," Renjun explains. "Now properly lock your ship this time, so no one else breaks in."

"I did lock my ship though," Donghyuck protests. "I even voice locked it, so no one can activate the ship."

"Voice lock?"

"I'll show you when we come back. Now, lead the way, princess." Renjun rolls his eyes but heads up the stairs without a snarky comment. Donghyuck follows behind, and when they leave the ship, Donghyuck makes a big, dramatic show of locking the ship properly.

Once they are back outside of the party, Renjun flashes a smile at the bouncer who lets them walk right in. While walking past the bushes that Donghyuck is only getting less fond of, Donghyuck says, "I just know I would not be let in here like that. Jeno did the same thing, but I just know someone would take one look at my broken horns and immediately assume I'm some kind of criminal or lowlife."

"Well, you kinda are," Renjun points out as they walk through the huge double doors and into the ballroom again.

"But I don't want people to assume that when they look at me," Donghyuck protests. "How is Jaemin still up there?"

"Because he loves attention. Simple as that," Renjun replies, eyes focused on Jaemin rather than Donghyuck.

"So how do we get the earrings from him?" Donghyuck asks. The emerald earrings dangle from Jaemin's ears and sparkle under all of the heavy lights and Donghyuck wonders if he could cut off Jaemin's ears and make an escape fast enough. Probably not, but he would certainly get very close.

"We have to wait, but don't worry, this is the end part of his speech." Then Renjun is once again grabbing Donghyuck's wrist and pulling him through the hallways of Jaemin's gigantic house.

Eventually, Renjun stops in front of a door and looks over to Donghyuck. He drops Donghyuck's wrist and opens the door, revealing Jaemin's bedroom.

Jaemin's bedroom is just as fancy and vomit-inducing as Donghyuck expected. Soft pink walls, aesthetic shelves, and photos everywhere, perfectly made sheets— Donghyuck is in hell.

"Why do you look so disgusted?" Renjun asks, clearly trying to stifle a giggle.

"Please tell Jaemin his room is revolting and if I didn't have such strong stomachs I would be vomiting all over everything," Donghyuck replies. One gagging gesture later has Renjun laughing.

"This is ridiculous. Jaemin's bedroom is totally normal and you're just dramatic." Donghyuck straightens up immediately, brush invisible dirt off his suit and holds his chin up high.

"I am no such thing," Donghyuck declares. Renjun giggles and facepalms at Donghyuck's antics. Footsteps can be heard from down the hallway (Gruzeves have much better hearing than Qeclese), so Donghyuck grabs Renjun and throws him onto Jaemin's so-pretty-it's-ugly bed. Donghyuck climbs on top of Renjun and before Renjun can protest, Donghyuck puts a finger over Renjun's mouth and whispers, "Someone is coming down the hall; please don't kill me."

Then Donghyuck is kissing Renjun. Renjun doesn't move for a moment, but evidently he believes Donghyuck enough to at least kiss back. Donghyuck's hand grab onto Renjun's very small, but also very squishable hips and Renjun's legs come up to wrap around Donghyuck's waist. Donghyuck can feel Renjun's skirt ride up and he resists any temptation to look, instead, angling his body so in case someone walks in, Renjun will still have some of his dignity.

Renjun's tongue prods at Donghyuck's lips and he willingly lets Renjun taste him. Surprisingly, Renjun tastes like honey and Donghyuck is enjoying it, even using his own tongue to battle with Renjun's. Both of them are getting into it a bit too much, as evidenced by Renjun shoving his hands in Donghyuck's hair and whining into his mouth.

The door swings open and the pair break apart, but Donghyuck still keeps himself at the same angle, which gives Renjun enough time to fix his skirt. In the doorway stands Jaemin, looking quite scandalized.

"Renjun? What are you doing in my bedroom?" Jaemin asks and Donghyuck wants to sock Jaemin in his perfect teeth. Renjun clears his throat and moves to sit beside Donghyuck.

"Uhhhh, making out obviously," Renjun replies, trying to play dumb, but neither Jaemin nor Donghyuck falls for it.

"Yeah, but why in _my_ room?" Jaemin whines. Okay, so maybe Jaemin bought it.

"Your bed is the nicest and I don't want to find something strange in your house like last time—" Jaemin shoots Renjun a death glare, something that Donghyuck is sure to note.

"So anyway," Renjun says, eyeing Donghyuck carefully. "I would very much like to continue what I was doing. So, unless you need to drop something off here..." Donghyuck can appreciate Renjun's ability to think on the fly. There's no way that Jaemin's earrings are comfortable to wear at all, so Renjun implants the idea to take them off in Jaemin's mind without even saying the word earring. Well played, Renjun. Well played.

Jaemin leaves the two alone without another word.

"Okay, that didn't work," Donghyuck sighs. "What's your big master plan now?"

"Hide in Jaemin's closet until he comes to bed because he'll have to take the earrings off before he goes to sleep," Renjun suggests. "I don't think there's a better solution."

"I think you should have let me punch him and steal his earrings when he was in here. I'm actually very good at that. Ask Mark Lee and he'll tell you," Donghyuck counters and Donghyuck can't tell if Renjun wants to hit Donghyuck or laugh. He hits Donghyuck. "Ow, You could have at least hit my arm where it would have hurt less, but no."

"I still can't believe you did that though. Petramians teeth are worth a lot of money and you just took one of his teeth without a second thought." Renjun shakes his head. "You are a strange one, Donghyuck Lee."

"Do you think Jaemin suspects me because of Jisung's tip-off?" Donghyuck asks.

"Probably a little, but he knows I'm smarter than him and we _were_ just making out, so you're fine," Renjun explains.

"Speaking of," Donghyuck says, sliding a little bit closer to Renjun. "You're a pretty good kisser. Especially considering your species isn't really knowing for sleeping around." Renjun scowls.

"While that's not a mean thing inherently, everyone always assumes I'm such a prude and it's very annoying. Would you like it if I assumed you have commitment issues and came from a broken home because that's what people say about Gruzeves?" Renjun counters, crossing his arms.

"One of those things is true though," Donghyuck mumbles. "But yeah, I see what you mean. I shall now assume you have a fair bit of experience under your belt. Cool?"

"Cool." They sit in silence for a moment. "Do you think we should go into the closet now?" Renjun fiddles with his fingers and doesn't look at Donghyuck.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best," Donghyuck replies, standing up to walk over to the only other door in the room.

Donghyuck opens the door and is in shock by the sheer amount of clothes hanging on both walls. There's not even any visible wall except for the end of the closet (which is more like a goddamn hallway).

"Yeah, this is like the pre-closet," Renjun mumbles, pushing past Donghyuck and all the way to the far wall which is one full-length mirror. Renjun touches the edge lightly and the mirror slides away to reveal a mini hallway filled with shoes, accessories, and most importantly, jewels. They may not be what Donghyuck came for originally, but they would surely fetch a pretty penny which would go a long way to upgrade his ship a bit.

"Would you kill me if I stole some of this stuff?" Donghyuck asks. "I feel like you would punch me and I rather like my face the way it is."

Renjun pulls Donghyuck inside the smaller closet and closes the mirror door, leaving not as much space between them as Donghyuck would have expected.

"Give me one good reason to let you steal and I will."

"I have two in fact: number one, the cell in my ship is damaged and if we get Yukhei back, we will likely be unable to restore his memories from wherever he is. He was kidnapped for a reason, so we'd need to fly to a whole other planet and if he's being difficult that will not be fun. Number two, your species has to eat way often than mine, so our food will run out very fast with both of us on board," Donghyuck explains.

"Those are both good reasons," Renjun pouts. "Fine, but don't take more than needed." Donghyuck can't believe how easy it is to get Renjun to bend to his will. Maybe this mission won't suck so much after all.

"Great because I already grabbed enough things." Renjun scowls and all Donghyuck can focus on is the way Renjun's eyes scrunch up like pretty flowers.

"I can't believe you already took things and I didn't notice; we are literally standing less than two feet apart," Renjun huffs.

"It _is_ literally my job," Donghyuck points out. "Anyways, turn off the lights so Jaemin doesn't notice that we're in here."

"Alright." Renjun fumbles with a spot on the wall and the room goes dark.

"Is the other closet also dark?" Donghyuck asks.

"Yes, I flicked the switch for both." Both of them are quiet for a moment, only the soft sounds of their breathing. Then Donghyuck hears Jaemin's bedroom door open and he places a finger to Renjun's lips to try and signal that he needs to breathe quieter.

"Wait," Donghyuck whispers. "Won't Jaemin place the earrings in this very room?"

"Fuck," Renjun whispers back and Donghyuck takes his finger away from Renjun's lips. "What do we do?"

"Open the door and trust me." Renjun frowns but does as asked and Donghyuck wraps both arms around Renjun's waist and pulls them both to the ground, sliding underneath some hanging pants. Jaemin opens the closet door, so Renjun can't voice his displeasure of being on top of Donghyuck, but Donghyuck can sense it.

Renjun shifts a bit on Donghyuck and Donghyuck tries to stay calm as any embarrassment will give away their whole cover. Donghyuck can feel his skin get a bit warmer, and Renjun's expression of disbelief becomes clearer.

Panicking, but also not want to alert Jaemin to their presence, Renjun carefully pulls down a sweater from right above him. He places it over Donghyuck's arm that's closer to Jaemin and uses his hands to cover as much as Donghyuck's face as he can'

Donghyuck wants to protest but Renjun shoots him a look that silences him. Jaemin flicks on the closet light and both Renjun and Donghyuck hold their breath. There's the sound of clothes hitting the floor and Renjun cringes.

The secondary closet is opened and that light is turned on. The pair hold their breath as there's the sound of metal on metal. Jaemin certainly takes his time removing his jewelry and Donghyuck knows it would be faster for him to just punch Jaemin and get on with it, but Renjun's weight on him stops him. He really wants this mission to go according to plan and Renjun now knows enough about Donghyuck to be a huge pain in his ass and besides, he would also need to steal Renjun's locket. While Donghyuck is certainly a good thief, getting something out from under someone's shirt is on another level. How would you even go about it? Undo the buttons? Undo the clasp in the back? Donghyuck has no clue, but if he had more time to make out with Renjun he might have come up with something as that seems like the only way to get Renjun's shirt off.

Finally, Jaemin leaves both closets and Renjun rolls off Donghyuck, then brushes himself off like laying on top of Donghyuck is some kind of punishment.

"Grow up," Donghyuck whispers, getting up off the ground. Renjun ignores him and opens the second closet, and before he can turn on the light, Donghyuck grabs his wrist. "We shouldn't turn on the light since it's really bright and Jaemin might notice it." Renjun frowns.

"How do we see then?" Renjun asks.

"Great question. Normally I have a light with me or something similar, but—" Donghyuck is interrupted by Renjun kissing Donghyuck, and yeah, that definitely is making Donghyuck start to glow bright orange.

"Perfect," Renjun replies after breaking the kiss and wiping his mouth on his sleeve. Donghyuck splutters, only causing himself to glow a brighter orange, and Renjun smiles.

"What drawer are the earrings in?" Donghyuck asks, and Renjun grabs Donghyuck's hand, using it as his own personal flashlight. Renjun moves to a spot behind a display of necklaces. He fumbles around until he touches a special spot on the wall and suddenly there's a box of jewels in Renjun's hand.

"Got them." Renjun smiles and Donghyuck stares at him in disbelief. "I was the one to help Jaemin hide them, of course, I'm going to know where they are, Donghyuck."

"I'm just surprised, leave me alone," Donghyuck whines. Renjun rolls his eyes and lets go of Donghyuck's hand. "Now we have to get out of here though and I'm fucking glowing."

"Well, how do you avoid this problem when you're doing other crimes?" Renjun asks.

"Normally, I have a special suit I wear. How else do you think I got into Chenle's mansion?" Donghyuck asks. "I do actually do things professionally sometimes."

"Could have fooled me," Renjun mumbles. "Okay, let's cover you in sweaters because you're literally glowing through your suit, which I didn't even realize your species could do."

"This is a stressful situation what can I say," Donghyuck retorts, trying to hide his embarrassment even though it is quite clearly written all over his face and the rest of his body.

Renjun goes back into the main closet and Donghyuck tries to catch his breath while Renjun pulls stuff off the hangers as quietly as he can. Donghyuck ignores Renjun and focuses in on Jaemin, just in case. His breathing is soft and even, indicating that he fell asleep. Fuck. How long have Renjun and Donghyuck been in here?

"Renjun, even if we get past Jaemin, how do we get out of the rest of the mansion?" Donghyuck asks right as Renjun throws a sweater at his face.

"Leave that bit to me," Renjun grunts, and four more sweaters all hit Donghyuck's body. "I know my way around Jaemin's house very well, and if you're lucky we'll end up kissing again."

"Say what now?" Donghyuck asks. It's a strange feeling to be thrown into the backseat when he's so used to driving, but Renjun has this commanding aura right now and Donghyuck doesn't have any better ideas so he bites back any snarky comments.

"Once Jaemin goes to bed," Renjun says, sliding a sweater over Donghyuck's head. "Everyone is essentially told they have half an hour to get out. Jaemin doesn't like noise and it's his house or whatever. And I'm willing to bet that half-hour will be almost up by the time we get out of here. But, us wandering around is inherently very suspicious, so I'm gonna press you against a wall and very loudly kiss you until we're thrown out." By the time Renjun is done speaking Donghyuck looks closer to a marshmallow than a Gruzeve, but he's stopped glowing, even though he's only gotten brighter underneath all of those layers.

"Renjun I can't see," Donghyuck whines. Renjun had been thorough (too thorough in Donghyuck's opinion) and now Donghyuck can't fucking see. Renjun's fingers grab Donghyuck's sweater covered wrist and then they are very slowly tiptoeing through Jaemin's light pink, aesthetically set up room and Donghyuck literally has to stifle a gag once again.

Renjun's hand is on the doorknob, about to turn, when Jaemin rolls over. Both of them hold their breath, not daring to move an inch. Jaemin's breathing evens out again after a moment and Donghyuck squeezes Renjun's hand to let him know that they can leave now. The door opens a fraction of an inch, Jaemin doesn't move, so Renjun opens it a few more inches and oh god, Donghyuck is about to lose it with this whole being a sneaky thing.

Once outside of Jaemin's room, Renjun closes the door, and they both breath a huge sigh of relief. Then Donghyuck is pulling off the sweaters as fast as he can until he is back down to his suit, which is now quite a bit rumpled.

"At least you look like someone has been making out with you," Renjun muses. "Or your suit at least."

"I'm gonna deck you," Donghyuck mumbles back, straightening out his suit as best he can. Renjun bites his cheek to stifle his laughter and Donghyuck doesn't know if he's pleased with that reaction or not.

Renjun leads Donghyuck down the hallway, closer towards the ballroom, but branches them off to another empty hallway. Donghyuck really should hate Renjun more, but it's hard to hate someone who's only acting out of love. Especially when that love is one Donghyuck understands. Well, the most Donghyuck has the capability to understand.

"Are you just gonna stare at me or what?" Renjun asks, crossing his arms, but he doesn't seem upset as the corners of his mouth are perked up, letting his curved canines press into his lower lip.

"Why don't you hate me so much?" Donghyuck asks. "I would expect you to try and kill me at least once by now, but you're working with me instead." Renjun's posture softens and he sighs.

"Is this really a conversation you want to have now?" Renjun asks. "I never actually considered you my enemy, Donghyuck. Do I dislike you? Yeah, you're a mess and hold yourself to this strange moral code I'll never understand. But Yukhei sees _something_ in you, and he's my whole world, so I'll put up with you and treat you as my friend." Renjun pauses. "If nothing else than for his sake, though I do see something in you."

All of that is a lot for Donghyuck to take in all at once. He knew that Qeclese feel things deeper than most species, but who knew they also felt things faster. Donghyuck's mind is swimming to the point he almost forgets to tell Renjun that there are people coming down the hall. Renjun nods and closes the distance between them carefully like Donghyuck is made of glass.

The kiss is sweet, one of Renjun's hands one Donghyuck's hip while the other strokes his cheek. Renjun lightly prods at Donghyuck's lips with his tongue and Donghyuck lets him in. Maybe there's something to be said about how much Donghyuck is enjoying Renjun kissing him when less than two weeks ago he wouldn't so much as say his name. Donghyuck doesn't want to think too hard about that and let himself enjoy the kiss, but there's something about the softness with which Renjun is kissing him. Renjun is kissing Donghyuck the way Donghyuck imagines he would kiss Yukhei, like flowers blooming in spring or some other romantic garbage.

For once, the idea of Yukhei and Renjun together doesn't make his guts churn like it used to. Maybe because Renjun is right here and doesn't seem like a threat anymore. Like he isn't some magical person that Donghyuck can't compete with. Then the image morphs to Donghyuck between Renjun and Yukhei. Both of them kissing him, holding his hands, making him feel loved— Donghyuck breaks the kiss, suddenly overwhelmed with how fast his brain is moving. He's just touch starved and misses Yukhei, and Renjun's mouth was _just_ on his. That's all this is. He can't possibly see Renjun as anything more than a begrudging partner.

Renjun looks up at Donghyuck, eyes blown wide, lips tinted purple from the kiss and hands very much still on Donghyuck's body. Donghyuck hates that he wants to kiss Renjun again.

"I don't know how they didn't find us," Renjun whispers, eyes locked on Donghyuck's. Donghyuck stares right back, and in the back of his mind rests a thought. Qeclese can let another species feel their version of love through kissing them, feel the rush of love at first sight, intense feelings, all of the sappy shit Donghyuck thought he wouldn't have to suffer through. They can control whether or not they do it, and Donghyuck isn't sure if Renjun used it on him, or everything is just rose-colored due to his tongue.

"I don't know either," Donghyuck finally replies. "Maybe..." Not another word is said before they are kissing again. This time it's more aggressive, Renjun gripping Donghyuck's hip like a lifeline and Donghyuck kissing back with just as much fervor. Donghyuck lets his tongue piercing feel out the sensitive spots in Renjun's mouth, finding all the rights ways to get Renun all worked up to the point where he's pulling them closer and closer, mewling here and there, definitely drawing attention to them.

It must work as some guards finally turn down their hall, grumbling something about teenagers and kids these days, but Donghyuck and Renjun only break fully once the guards are near them.

"Did you guys not get the memo that the party is over?" One of the guards asks.

"We must have been distracted," Donghyuck says and Renjun giggles, while the guards roll their eyes.

"Alright, get out of here. We will escort you out so you don't get _distracted_ along the way." Donghyuck has to use all of his self-control not to full-on laugh at the guard and clearly Renjun does too if his little giggles are anything to go by.

Once outside the gates of Jaemin's house, the moment is suddenly awkward again. What is it about the cool, night air that makes everything feel so much more real. To the point where Renjun and Donghyuck don't talk on their way back to the ship.

Donghyuck unlocks his ship with his key and lets Renjun in first. He walks back to his bedroom and opens up his safe, and Renjun's jaw drops.

"No wonder they only got Yukhei, that safe is protected," Renjun comments.

"Unless someone cuts out my tongue and removes one of my eyes," Donghyuck points out as he places all of the stolen goods in the safe. "Can you hand over your locket now?" Donghyuck doesn't want to have the locket anywhere where it could get stolen or risk something happening and it gets lost.

Renjun looks hesitant. "You're not gonna throw me off the ship once I hand it over right?" That's certainly not what Donghyuck was expecting Renjun to say.

"Look, Renjun, even though we don't get along for obvious reasons, I'm not gonna be a dick and screw you over like that. Besides, you know my real name and enough about me to screw me over too if you really wanted." Donghyuck extends his hand and Renjun drops the locket into it. His hand closes around the locket and places it in the safe with everything else. After the safe is locked, Donghyuck goes back to the main cabin.

Renjun stands idly behind the captain's chair, unsure of where to sit. Donghyuck almost doesn't want to let him sit in the co-pilot's chair because that's Yukhei's seat and it always has been, but this is temporary, Donghyuck can be a big boy about this.

"Come sit down in the co-pilot's chair," Donghyuck says. "Let me voice unlock the ship." Renjun does as asked and watches as Donghyuck queues up the unlock. “Yukhei sexy metal crunch,” Donghyuck says into the ship as Renjun stands on, mouth open.

“ _That’s_ your password that prevented your ship from being stolen?” Renjun asks incredulously.

“Yeah, what about it?” Donghyuck asks, pretending to be oblivious to Renjun’s reaction.

"I'm just..." Renjun trails off. "Wow. I don't even know where to begin."

"Then don't." Donghyuck shrugs and starts the ship up, ready to go pay Johnny a proper visit for the first time since this mission has started.

Renjun is asleep in the copilot's chair and Donghyuck is considering waking him up because Donghyuck is about ready to fall asleep himself. Donghyuck switches on the autopilot and looks at Renjun, ethereal if Donghyuck is honest with himself. The moment is almost sweet, but then Renjun's phone rings.

Fuck.

Donghyuck forgets that other species (or basically anyone that's not him) carries a cell phone and they can be fucking tracked. But everyone is addicted to games and easy communication. If Donghyuck had everything his way he wouldn't even have a way to call Johnny from his ship. Payphones, now that's the way to go. Completely anonymous and used to be everywhere. At least until Ten's company started making cell phones dirt cheap (which is only because they trap poor species into slave contracts).

Hopping up from his chair Donghyuck grabs Renjun, which shocks him awake. Renjun is yelling at Donghyuck and shoving him off immediately, drowning out the ringing.

"Who the fuck is calling you?" Donghyuck hisses. Renjun falls quiet and all that can be heard is his stupid pop song ringtone. He opens it and Donghyuck is about to tackle Renjun to the ground, but Renjun holds up a hand.

"Jaemin?" There's muffled screaming on the other end and Renjun's brows furrow together. "Hey, yeah, it's all gonna be okay, trust me—" More screaming, but this time Donghyuck catches a few words. Something along the lines of 'oh my god, you've been kidnapped and you're gonna die because Haechan is some sort of evil criminal genius.' Maybe Donghyuck made that last bit up, but it's implied from everything else going on.

Donghyuck sighs and rips the phone out of Renjun's hand. He brings the receiver to his mouth and says, "Yes, Jaemin, I got Renjun and what are you gonna do about it? Cry like a bitch? That's what I thought." Before Jaemin can even reply, Donghyuck drops the phone to the ground and crushes it underneath his foot.

Renjun's jaw drops. "You did not just fucking smash my phone?"

"Hell yeah I did," Donghyuck replies. "Those things can be tracked and clearly Jaemin was about to start tracking yours. That is quite literally the last thing we need." Renjun looks like he's about to reply, but decides against it.

Donghyuck frowns. It isn't even a big deal. Renjun could buy several thousand phones and not blink an eye over it, so why is he so goddamn angsty about this.

"Anyways," Donghyuck says. "I want to get ready for bed, so I'm going to do that."

"What about me?" Renjun asks. "I am not wearing this skirt while we rescue Yukhei, I want some fucking pants and that's final." Donghyuck has to stifle a laugh, but Renjun has a point. While Donghyuck's ship had been designed for three, Yukhei and Donghyuck thought that one of the bedrooms could have been converted to a storeroom and bedroom (it was made for two people). But once Yukhei left, Donghyuck put the other bed at Johnny's place because he didn't want to lug it around if he didn't have to. And the cot is not really intact from the kidnapping, which means...

"You're not gonna like this, but you have to sleep with me," Donghyuck says and Renjun's face turns slightly purple. "Yeah, yeah, but you're the one who insisted on coming with me y'know."

"Yes, I'm well aware," Renjun scowls. "Now hand over some pants before I find them myself."

"I can do you one better," Donghyuck declares. "Wait here and I'll bring up some extra clothes from my room." There are no extra clothes in the storeroom. Donghyuck is going to grab one of the several bags of lingerie that are sitting in his closet as revenge for Renjun leaving his phone on. But it _was_ fun to insult Jaemin to his face.

Donghyuck walks back to his bedroom and opens his closet. He could give Renjun one of his nice pajamas but this would be funnier. He pulls out a set of lingerie that's black and looks more like a trap than clothing, but it will work.

With the set in hand, Donghyuck walks back to the main room, and much to his delight, Renjun's jaw drops.

"You can't be serious," Renjun protests.

"I'm sorry, but it's this or what you're wearing right now," Donghyuck deadpans.

"I know you're kidding, but how would you react if I actually slept in that? It's too big, but it looks adjustable," Renjun muses sarcastically. "Now give me some real clothes or I'm stealing yours."

"Alright, alright," Donghyuck replies. "I will give you some clothes, but you do actually have to share a bed with me. Or you could sleep on the floor, but that doesn't seem that desirable, now does it?"

"This is ridiculous, but whatever. Do I have to say no homo?" Renjun asks and Donghyuck can't tell if he's joking or not.

"We only kissed like four times," Donghyuck replies. "You only have to say no homo after the tenth kiss. That's a science fact." Renjun stifles a laugh and Donghyuck cracks a smile.

"Alright, fine," Renjun concedes. "Guide me to your bed, my enemy."

"I supposed you are my enemy, but also not really," Donghyuck muses, double-checking their route before escorting Renjun to his bedroom.

"Why do you say that?"

"My enemy is anyone that hurts Yukhei and while you did, you're also helping me get him back from someone who might physically harm him. Even though I hate to think about that," Donghyuck explains.

"Yeah," Renjun mumbles, and his face seems to fall.

"But don't worry because with our forces together we can save him." Donghyuck sits down on his bed and points Renjun to his closet. "Grab something from in there you want to sleep in." Renjun grabs something and then shifts from foot to foot and doesn't look at Donghyuck.

"Uhhh, can I have some privacy?" Renjun asks.

"Oh, yeah." Donghyuck can feel himself turn orange, so he flips himself around and shoves his face into the nearest pillow. Two minutes later, Renjun pokes Donghyuck's knee.

"I'm all changed." Donghyuck gets up and grabs his own pajama's then strips, uncaring of modesty. He is proud of his appearance, but apparently Renjun doesn't agree with Donghyuck's methods as he hides his face in a pillow as well.

"I'm just changing, it's not like I care." Donghyuck snorts. "Anyway, I'll turn the lights off so get comfortable now." Renjun doesn't reply and Donghyuck shuts the lights off. He fumbles in the dark, careful to not sit on Renjun.

"Goodnight, Donghyuck," Renjun whispers.

"Goodnight." Donghyuck stares at the ceiling until he falls asleep, resisting the urge to curl up with Renjun because maybe Renjun deserves the kind of love Donghyuck craves from Yukhei.

*.·:·.☽✧ 🛸 ✧☾.·:·.*

Donghyuck wakes up to the feeling of another being clinging onto him and he's about to elbow whoever it is in the face because he sleeps alone and only alone, but then he realizes that it's Renjun. And then everything from last night comes back to him. The several times he kissed Renjun, stealing from Jaemin and Yukhei being gone again. There's a tug at his heart as he knows he needs to call Johnny as soon as possible and probably should have called him last night, but didn't really want to admit that Yukhei is really gone again.

He climbs out of bed, unwilling to take his pajamas off since it'll be eight more hours before they reach Johnny's home planet of Arctures Donghyuck doesn't really feel like eating yet either so he decides to do the only form of entertainment on his ship and lay on the floor and count the lines in the ceiling.

Around three hours later, Donghyuck is still staring at the ceiling, and Renjun walks into the room, yawning. Renjun stares at Donghyuck for a moment and Donghyuck is aware of Renjun's staring but chooses to ignore it until Renjun lays down next to him.

"Why are we staring at the ceiling?" Renjun asks.

"Because I don't have a phone and normally I'm alone," Donghyuck says. "We have hours until we reach our destination and I don't know what else to do."

"I could quote something funny from the internet if you'd like," Renjun suggests. "It's so dumb, but Yukhei would find it funny." The mention of Yukhei makes Donghyuck tense up and Renjun grabs Donghyuck's hand. "I know it's touchy and I know we aren't like cool cool yet, but we kissed and are now partners so let's just be chill. I know we will get Yukhei back no matter what."

"Are we really going to just resolve everything this fast?" Donghyuck says. "It seems too easy."

"I'm more of the forgive and forget type than the grudge type. I also can't hold a grudge if I know someone. Might be dumb of me, but that's life I guess," Renjun explains. "So truce because we both care about Yukhei?"

"Yeah, why not?" Donghyuck says. "This is so anti-climatic."

"Should I punch you to make things more exciting?" Renjun sits up and looks at Donghyuck over his shoulder. "That might be fun. You _do_ have a very punchable face."

"Nah, I've been punched enough times for one lifetime," Donghyuck replies.

"And how many times is that?" Renjun counters.

"So many. Though the number has gone down a lot in recent years though," Donghyuck points out.

"Y'know Donghyuck, if it makes you feel better, we are quite literally going on a rescue mission which might have some more action for you. Even though I would rather there is no action because action means possible injury or death, but you seem to enjoy things like that." Donghyuck sits up and gazes fondly upon Renjun. Funny how meeting someone can drastically change one's original perception.

Renjun's chin rests on his shoulder and the pair make eye contact. Donghyuck leans in and cups Renjun's cheek. Their noses brush and Renjun closes the gap between them. Renjun is soft and opens his mouth easily, allowing Donghyuck to map every inch of his mouth. Donghyuck's hand migrates lower and pulls Renjun closer to him. Renjun climbs into Donghyuck's lap and straddles him, taking control of the kiss in the process.

Donghyuck moans as Renjun moves his mouth away from Donghyuck's and down his neck. He bites down hard, fangs pressing into Donghyuck's neck hard enough to draw a tiny bit of blood. Donghyuck can't deny that the feeling is good. No, amazing. Renjun mouths on the bite until Donghyuck is pushing his head away from the overwhelming pleasure-pain.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Donghyuck asks, panting.

"Doesn't matter, but since we literally have nothing better to do for several hours how about I make another matching mark on the other side of your neck?" Renjun asks.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Donghyuck replies, drawing Renjun into a quick kiss before letting him go to town on his neck.

line break

When Donghyuck's ship alerts him that they are nearing the atmosphere of Arctures, Donghyuck removes himself from where he and Renjun were laying together. Renjun sits up and yawns, having decided that Donghyuck's chest had been a great spot to nap on.

"I'm going to land us on Arctures, so buckle yourself in," Donghyuck says, strapping himself into the pilot's seat. Renjun takes the co-pilot seat and buckles himself in. "There's a reason Johnny lives here rather than literally anywhere else in the galaxy."

The ride down is bumpy, with the turbulence making Renjun look a bit more green than normal. Donghyuck navigates through the asteroids like a pro and hollers when he lands gracefully in Johnny's driveway. The garage door opens up and Donghyuck drives the ship in.

"You good, Renjun? You look a bit too green," Donghyuck comments. "If you're feeling a bit motion sick, which is totally normal on your first trip here, take some Kiwi from the bathroom. It'll make you feel better." Renjun nods and rushes back to the bathroom. Donghyuck on the other hand exits the ship. Johnny spins around in his chair, looking decidedly unimpressed with Donghyuck.

"What went wrong?" Johnny asks. "You wouldn't be here unless shit really hit the fan."

"You know me too well," Donghyuck says, sighing. He plops down on a random bean bag chair on Johnny's floor. He could really appreciate the way Johnny set up his basement lair. The upstairs is much more normal and general species friendly, but this is a huge, open concrete floor that's covered in rugs and throw pillows. And one wall is a huge monitor with a desk beneath it. Really the perfect hideout for a criminal.

"Spit it out, Donghyuck," Johnny warns. "I can figure out what happened easily enough on my own, but I would much rather you tell me straight up."

"So, y'know how I had Yukhei in my ship," Donghyuck begins and Johnny's jaw drops. "Yeah, he totally got kidnapped."

"Okay, I can't believe you were that much of an idiot, but are the jewels okay?" Johnny asks and Donghyuck rolls his eyes. "If the jewels are fucked too, it's going to be that much harder to get Yukhei back because you won't have all the answers he's looking for y'know."

"Okay points were made, but even still. All the jewels are fine because of my super-duper edgy safe."

"The one that has a tongue sensor?" Donghyuck suppresses his embarrassment because he does not want to turn orange right now. Now would be a really shitty time for that.

"Yes, and?" At that moment, Renjun comes walking over and Johnny's jaw drops for a second time. Maybe Donghyuck should have lead with the bit about Renjun, but whatever, it's too late now.

"You cannot' be serious right now," Johnny says. "Donghyuck, why is your enemy in my basement?" Johnny asks, frantically pacing around the room. "I thought I could trust you with my location, but no, you brought _Renjun_ of all beings to my place."

"I take slight offense to that," Renjun butts in and Donghyuck and grabs Renjun's wrist to try and ask him to shut up. Johnny eyes Donghyuck carefully and Donghyuck knows he sees the way he's gripping onto Renjun's wrist.

"Okay, I didn't really have another option," Donghyuck counters. "Renjun helped me steal from Jaemin and gave over his piece of the jewels in exchange for coming with me and helping rescue Yukhei." Johnny's blue eyes narrow in on Donghyuck's neck and Donghyuck regrets his hate of scarves for a fraction of a second.

He despises scarves because they always get in the way during a fight. And because 95% of the time they are extremely tacky. Yes, Donghyuck dresses like a motorcycle, but he does know how to dress when he has to. His number one rule to always look hot is to never wear scarves. There is no number two rule.

But with the way Johnny is glaring at Donghyuck, Donghyuck wishes— no, aches, for that stupid, tacky fabric that could cover up the several love bites Renjun left him.

"Donghyuck, what's that on your neck?" Johnny asks innocently and Renjun's hands come up and cover Donghyuck's neck.

"There's nothing of importance to be seen here," Renjun interjects. "All that really matters is finding Yukhei and we have no idea how to do it because number one: we don't know who took him. Number two: he could theoretically be on any planet in any of the neighboring galaxies."

"Yeah, I know exactly how to find Yukhei and it'll be much easier than whatever you two are thinking about doing, but even still," Johnny says. "What's on your neck?"

"All of us know what's on my neck and we also all know that it's irrelevant in accomplishing the bigger goal here," Donghyuck defends and Johnny raises an eyebrow.

"I will let this slide, this one time, but you are nowhere near in the clear," Johnny warns, holding up an aggressive finger to prove his point. "But anyway, you and Yukhei have trackers on that I use to keep tabs on you two when you're out there causing problems and I want to make sure nothing bad happens."

"I don't know whether to be flattered you care about me or offended that you've been tracking my movements for months at least," Donghyuck replies. "I'll go with flattered since this is working in my favor, but please know, the day these backfire in some way and I end up under the control of an evil Roomba, it's all your fault."

"I can't believe Roomba's still exist," Renjun points out. Oh god, don't get Donghyuck started on Roombas. Evil machines that will steal the layout of your house and sell it to sketchy people like Donghyuck. That's actually how he managed to navigate through Chenle's house so easily. Never trust a Roomba.

"You are completely absurd," Johnny says before turning back to his desk and pulling up Yukhei's profile. Donghyuck smiles at Yukhei's smiling face, metal sparkling in the light even though it's a fucking photo and that's not how photos work at all. Donghyuck is just getting dramatic.

Renjun seems to be in a similar state though after Donghyuck takes a quick look at him, which makes him feel much better about his life decision to be whipped for Yukhei Wong. It wasn't an easy one and comes with lots of challenges, and Donghyuck only realized a few days ago, but he's here and can't really change anything for the moment.

Johnny does a few clickity clacks on his computer (Donghyuck has no idea what Johnny is doing and doesn't really care as long as it gets him the results he wants) and then he pulls up a 3D map of the galaxy.

"Yukhei is being held underground on Acrux and I have no clue how he's even under there. He's alive, don't worry, so it must be some form of basement there, but I won’t know for certain until I hack into the satellites that hang over that area. Give me a few minutes and I'll get you some more information," Johnny explains. "Just don't eat each other's face's off in the meantime." Donghyuck gives Johnny a salute and so does Renjun.

The pair plop back on the beanbag and watch as Johnny types on his keyboard with rapid-fire strokes. Donghyuck has no clue what's going on, but Renjun grabs his hand and he understands what that means, so he focuses on that instead.

"I can't believe we are going to get him back so soon," Renjun mumbles. "I'm overwhelmed in a really good way if I'm being honest."

"That's a solid and valid feeling, Renjun," Donghyuck replies. "I think I'm in the same boat as you."

"Okay, I got a bit more information about his location," Johnny says, spinning around in his chair.

"How do you even get this kind of stuff anyway?" Renjun asks. "It all seems really illegal."

"That's because it is," Johnny replies, scoffing.

"Why do you give all this info to Donghyuck for free then?" Renjun pushes. "No offense to Donghyuck, but like why not sell it to the highest bidder."

"Because I think the highest bidder can go fuck himself," Johnny replies. "That's why."

"Wait what—" Donghyuck interjects.

"Why do you genuinely think I give you so much information and tech for free, Hyuck?" Johnny asks, leaning back in his chair.

"Because I'm adorable, irresistible and you see some of your younger self in me?" Donghyuck tries and Renjun facepalms. Like he _hadn't_ been trying to remove Donghyuck's neck bit by bit an hour ago.

"No, it's because you're a pain in Ten's ass and Ten is the highest bidder for anything like this," Johnny replies.

"Ten?" Renjun inquires. "Like the guy who co-hosted Jaemin's charity ball?"

"The one and only." Johnny takes a pause. "He's also my ex-boyfriend." Both Renjun and Donghyuck's jaws drop but Donghyuck recovers quicker.

"How come you never told me?" Donghyuck screeches. "I thought we were cool!"

"I knew how much you hate the guy's guts and kinda assumed you would start to resent me for even dating him in the first place," Johnny admits.

"Oh, Johnny," Donghyuck says, angry already drained out of him. "If you had told me, I would have made more of an effort defacing anything with his name or face on it with a penis." Johnny and Renjun both laugh.

"Okay, that's funny, but what's wrong with Ten?" Renjun asks.

"He's corrupt and makes money from extorting others," Johnny replies. "Once I realized he didn't care about paying his workers enough, I broke things off with him and Donghyuck is anti-capitalist, so he already disliked Ten for controlling so much of the market of everything. We made some really good partners."

"How did Yukhei fit into all of this?" Renjun asks.

"He was Donghyuck's friend and just as excited as Donghyuck to start mayhem wherever they went," Johnny says. "Really sweet kid, which is why I'm helping you get him back."

"Okay, so tell us what you found," Donghyuck says, getting them back on track.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Johnny asks. Donghyuck says 'bad' right as Renjun says 'good' and they look at each other with bug eyes. "Okay, so good news first it is. Good news is, I found a much more exact spot to where Yukhei is being held and how to get in and out safely."

"So, what's the bad news?" Donghyuck asks. "That sounds like really really good."

"It is! Except for the fact that Yukhei is being kept on a part of Acrux, that's almost exclusively for trading in species and Luidae don't really grow on trees, so he's basically there to be sold. This means you have to get their fast _and_ take some extra precautions," Johnny explains, and Donghyuck sticks his tongue out at the word precautions purely on instinct. Johnny is right, but Donghyuck can't help but despise rules with everything he has.

"What sort of extra precautions?" Renjun asks.

"You'll need some extra gear from me and I would normally advise having back up in a situation, but since that isn't an option, I'm recommending some all species mace."

"What is all species mace?"

"It's mace, but it'll work on anything from Petramians to Orrets," Donghyuck explains. "It's honestly one of my favorite things to ever exist, but it's crazy hard to get anywhere because most planets outlawed it. How did you even get any Johnny?"

"I stole several packs of it from Ten right before I broke up with him. If he was gonna be a dick to his employees I don't see why I couldn't be a dick to him and _borrow_ a few things." Johnny shrugs and they all laugh.

"Yeah, he totally had it coming," Donghyuck points out. "Just like he will have it coming when I remove _all_ of his teeth. Mark was lucky to only lose one, but I will collect all of Ten's teeth like they are Pokemon."

"That's such an outdated reference," Renjun says, but he still laughs.

"What's a Pokemon?" Johnny asks.

"I don't even know where to begin explaining them," Renjun replies. "But trust me, if you knew what a Pokemon was, that would be a very funny joke."

"Anyway, I will equip you two to the best of my ability and then cross my fingers that neither of you ends up dead," Johnny says.

"I would never die before taking another one of Mark Lee's teeth and he won't even be there, so don't worry Johnny," Donghyuck replies.

"Yes, very relieving, Hyuck," Johnny deadpans. "So, what I can do to make sure nothing bad happens to you is give you inner ear mics that will connect to each other. I don't have any strong enough to go across underground and across the galaxy. I also think your best course of action is for one of you to sneak in as a prison guard and the other sneak through the vents. The one who goes through the vents will be the one to let the guard in."

"Going to make a bold statement here and decide that I'm better to crawl through vents because I'm pretty recognizable," Donghyuck says. "Like what Gruzeves has broken horns? Only me. Probably."

"I wouldn't feel confident being the first one in any way," Renjun says, shrugging. "So hit me with your best guard uniform."

"I would need to quickly use my 3D printer to make one because I have no uniforms like this just on hand," Johnny replies. "Go grab some of the small mace cans that you'll be able to hide and Donghyuck can wear his special suit or whatever."

"Oh yeah," Donghyuck replies. "I get to be invisible again. This is so sexy."

"You're something else," Renjun mumbles. "But yeah, where's the mace?" Johnny points to a collection of boxes all stacked up in the opposite corner of the room.

"So I go in with my invisibility suit and then will let you in through whatever entrance Johnny says is the safest. Then we go to Yukhei's cell, which is in the C Block and is cell number 43, according to the diagram on Johnny's screen," Donghyuck explains. "Once we have Yukhei, we might need to threaten him with the mace to make sure he comes with us because he doesn't really trust us a lot."

"And why is that?" Renjun says sarcastically.

"We both know the answer here," Donghyuck replies. "I have no idea what he thinks of you, so I might just stay quiet for the whole time and just hold the mace just in case."

"I can't tell if you genuinely want to mace Yukhei or not."

"I do," Donghyuck says. "He completely has it coming for being a total dick to me."

"What did he do?" Renjun asks, confused.

"He kissed me on my ship when I told him who he really is and then tried to steal the keys to his cell from me by holding me against the bars." Donghyuck doesn't like to think about that because it just leaves him feeling gross all over.

"That's fucked up, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry for ever removing Yukhei's memories. I really thought it would be for his own good, but it backfired." Renjun sighs.

"Was it your idea to remove them or someone else's?" Donghyuck asks just because he has to know.

"It was Mark's and it seemed like a good idea at the time," Renjun reveals.

"You took life advice from Mark Lee," Donghyuck says, dumbfounded. "Now why would you do that?"

"Okay, that was before I realized he's a very smart species with computers but overall he's not the kind of person you should listen to."

"I love this character development. In fact, I might just need to kiss you again," Donghyuck replies flirtatiously. Renjun rolls his eyes and brings Donghyuck in for a quick kiss that soon spirals into something else.

"I told you two to get the mace! Not to suck each other's face," Johnny exclaims and they break apart, getting back to the task at hand: universal mace.

"Sorry, Johnny," Donghyuck calls back. He pops open the first box he sees and finds these tiny containers of single-use mace that could easily be hidden in his suit's pants pockets. Donghyuck grabs the entire container while Renjun looks through the other boxes for anything else useful. Donghyuck puts the box on the ship and walks back over to Renjun who's holding a taser. To edge on the side of caution, Donghyuck puts his hands up and keeps his distance from Renjun.

"Are you scared of tasers or something?" Renjun asks.

"Tasers are terrible inventions that make me hate the existence of humans to begin with. I have a long list of reasons as to why humanity sucked ass and the number one thing on that list is tasers," Donghyuck replies, deadly serious. Renjun's jaw drops.

"You're the most unbelievable species I've ever met, honestly," Renjun says, chuckling. "You do all kinds of crazy shit, but you're afraid of tasers."

"If you have been tasered as many times and in as many places as I have, you would understand," Donghyuck replies. "Now put that down, please." Renjun lowers it and sticks it in the waistband of his pants. "You just look like you have a massive dick now."

"Do you think that's a bad thing? Honestly, you seem like the type—" Renjun can't finish his teasing of Donghyuck as Johhny calls the two of them over.

"Okay, Renjun, see how this fits you." Johnny hands Renjun a tan uniform and hat. Renjun goes back onto the ship to go and change and Johnny watches him as he goes. Once Renjun is gone, Johnny says, "How did _that_ happen?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Donghyuck replies innocently. This isn't the conversation he wants to be having with Johnny now or ever if he's honest. Johnny doesn't need to know anything about the state of his love life. Or a barely existent one.

"Don't play games with me," Johnny counters. "I see the way the two of you have been acting and while it's gross and feels like you're fraternizing with the enemy, you look happy. It's weird."

"That was awful to listen to," Donghyuck says. "But yeah, we had to kiss as a cover at Jaemin's party. And then we _kept_ kissing each other and somehow that led to us resolving our differences because in this case, we have a common enemy even if we don't know who they are."

"That makes sense," Johnny muses. "I'm mainly here to tell you to use protection and not to get pregnant." Donghyuck gasps and hits Johnny's arm repeatedly.

"You are the worst," Donghyuck hisses while Johnny laughs. Renjun walks out of the ship and he really looks like just another guard, which the intention here.

"While I was changing I thought of an issue though," Renjun says. "What if they use only one species to guard everyone?"

"Then you're fucked." Renjun nervously laughs and looks at Donghyuck with fear in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Renjun," Donghyuck reassures. "I will make sure nothing bad happens to you."

"That's really not that reassuring," Renjun whines. "No offense, but you don't have a great track record." Donghyuck squawks and Renjun has to shield himself from Donghyuck's wrath.

"Getting back on topic," Johnny says. "Is there anything else you two need from me?"

"I don't think so," Donghyuck says. "But some food would be nice." Johnny rolls his eyes and gets up from his chair.

"I’ll go and pack you guys some food. Go get ready for take-off and prep your route out of here," Johnny commands, and Donghyuck nods, grabbing Renjun's wrist to drag him back to the ship.

"Do I need to do anything to help prep?" Renjun asks while Donghyuck starts up the ship. "I have no clue how to do any of what you're doing."

"Yeah, you're totally fine. Just go and change out of the uniform and into normal clothes," Donghyuck requests. "Acrux is eighteen hours away, so we will be cooped up for a bit." Renjun goes back to Donghyuck's bedroom and Donghyuck pulls up his map of space. Acrux is hard to get to as it's even farther out of the way than Donghyuck had been going anyway. The trip normally takes four days, but Donghyuck knows a wormhole that will take him only three hours away from it. But the wormhole doesn't show up on the map, so Donghyuck sets their route to the planet closest to it. That's still fifteen hours to kill.

Renjun might need to sleep soon, even though they haven't been awake for too long. Donghyuck doesn't understand his species' sleep schedule at all and isn't planning on figuring it out. He'll tell Renjun the times for everything so he can get enough rest. Donghyuck would probably nap in a few hours until the wormhole. But right now, food sounds the most appetizing, so he gets out of the ship, ready to look for Johnny.

Johnny must still be upstairs, so Donghyuck plops down in his chair and looks at the info displayed on it. There's a tab about possible suspects as to kidnapped Yukhei and Donghyuck wonders why Johnny didn't say anything about that earlier. Donghyuck glances towards the door and doesn't hear anything, so he clicks on it and sees the list. So, that's why Johnny didn't say anything. Donghyuck closes the file out just as quickly as he opened it and walks back to his ship without another word. Johnny will bring the food up to the ship anyway.

Donghyuck sits in his captain's chair and reviews the route again while he waits for Johnny. A few minutes later, Johnny drops off a huge cooler full of food in the entryway of his ship.

"Thank you so much, Johnny, wow," Renjun says, coming out of Donghyuck's bedroom dressed in normal clothes again. "That's way too much food, but thank you again."

"Thanks, Johnny," Donghyuck says, hoping neither one of them catch onto the difference in his tone. "I appreciate all that you've done for us."

"No problem guys, now don't get yourselves murdered." Johnny exits the ship and Donghyuck closes the doors behind him. Renjun sits down in his co-pilot chair.

"You're thinking so loud. What is it?" Donghyuck asks.

"Your tone changed a lot within a few minutes and it's weird," Renjun comments. "Not trying to accuse you of something, just telling you what I noticed."

"I saw a list of potential individuals who kidnapped Yukhei," Donghyuck reveals. "And there were some familiar names on that list."

"Like who?"

"I really don't want to say. I can't really see any of their motivations for kidnapping him though," Donghyuck admits. "Like maybe they don't like me, but they don't even know Yukhei existed. Things like that. Plus, there was no ransom note which means they don't want me to get him back, so that makes things messier."

"I see what you mean." Renjun nods. "How about you get us out of here and then we eat together? After you eat something, we can cuddle if you would like because I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get sleepy."

"Already?"

"Yes, I like to sleep, Hyuck." The nickname slips from Renjun's lips without him thinking much about it and Donghyuck chooses to move past it because addressing it isn't what's important right now.

"That sounds like a plan, but I need to tell you our trajectory to Acrux once we are out of the atmosphere." Donghyuck fires up his ship and launches them out of Johnny's basement and into the air.

Once again, it's hard to fly out of Arctures but Donghyuck avoids the asteroids and Renjun is careful to manage his motion sickness by staring at one corner of the ship's floorboards. They get out into space in record time (at least in Donghyuck's records) and Donghyuck sets their course towards Acrux. He leans back in his chair and looks at Renjun.

"So, we are gonna float through space on auto-pilot for around fifteen hours then we are going to use a wormhole to cut through space, which will place us within only three hours from Acrux. But fair warning, going through wormholes makes your body feel weird," Donghyuck explains. "Normally I try to avoid them, but because without this one it'll take four days to reach Yukhei and we don't really have four days to waste around, we have to go through it."

"I totally get it. I think my plan still works though. My species needs like nine hours of sleep and I don't know how long it is to prep for a wormhole, but fifteen minus nine is six and that's plenty of time for prepping, eating, and cuddling." Why is Renjun so adorable? Ew, that was a soft thought. Quick, lasers, knives, Mark. Okay, much better.

"Alright deal."

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Donghyuck wakes up half an hour before his alarm is set to warn him to prep for the wormhole. Renjun is curled up on his chest and Donghyuck likes the feeling of his breath against his neck. He technically doesn't have to get up yet, even though it's better to prep earlier because this _is_ a fucking wormhole.

Instead, Donghyuck thinks. He thinks about everything. His feelings, the people he's chosen to associate with, his life choices. Donghyuck isn't sure if he really regrets anything. If this mission goes according to plan or at least doesn't blow up in his face, Donghyuck will go back to being unapologetically remorseless. But when everything is so uncertain, Donghyuck can't help the moments of insecurity that get their grip on him. He wishes sometimes that he was normal and wasn't a space thief. Maybe with regular parents and a steady job, but then Donghyuck remembers the time he tried the whole steady career thing.

It wasn't a great idea. And Yukhei was partially to blame for this. Donghyuck had gotten hired at a restaurant on Procyon and he came in to order food and Donghyuck did everything right until someone told him to hurry up. Donghyuck blinked at the Cumeasier, already ready to throw hands, and then the Cumeasier hadn't even tipped him.

Donghyuck ended up slashing the Cumeasier’s tires and quitting his job the very same day.

And that's why Donghyuck isn't normal. Yukhei had been supportive and bought Donghyuck ice cream to make him feel a bit better. It's a fond memory and one that helps push away the insecurities for a bit.

Renjun stirs a bit next to Donghyuck, so Donghyuck says, "Renjun, it's time to wake up. We need to prep for the wormhole, remember?" Renjun whines and presses a kiss to the spot where Donghyuck's shoulder and neck meet.

"I think sleep is better," Renjun mumbles.

"I have to get up either way and right before we enter you're going to need to be strapped into the co-pilot's chair, so your insides don't get rearranged in a not-fun way." Renjun giggles and rolls over, allowing Donghyuck to get up. "I'll come get you in forty-five minutes."

Donghyuck walks out of his bedroom and heads downstairs for the first basic preparations. He closed all doors that connect two spaces, so nothing can fly up into the cabin. The only two doors upstairs are his bedroom door and the bathroom door, both of which Renjun just might open again, so those can be last.

Sitting down in the pilot's chair, Donghyuck opens up the system manual. It has been quite a while since he's flown through a wormhole in this ship, so he wants to make sure he does it right. He shifts the gear of the ship and turns off any auto-brakes first. What next? Double protect the windows and anything else fragile in the cabin.

There isn't anything Donghyuck can really think of that's fragile in here, but Donghyuck still puts up the front shield. Donghyuck turns on the switch for rapid speed travel as well and while that isn't really designed for wormholes it's like the real-life equivalent of a synonym.

Before he knows it, forty-five minutes have passed and they are twenty minutes away from the wormhole. Donghyuck goes back to his bedroom to fetch Renjun, who is unsurprisingly asleep.

"Renjun, you gotta get up now." Renjun doesn't reply, but Donghyuck doesn't really have time for this, so he picks up Renjun around the waist, who naturally clings to him. Donghyuck sets him down in the co-pilot chair and straps him in. "You're not gonna like this if you're asleep, I promise."

"Okay, I'm awake," Renjun mumbles.

"I'm sure you are." Donghyuck rolls his eyes. "I'm going to lick your cheek if you're asleep when I come back." Renjun doesn't even register the comment and Donghyuck heads back to close the bathroom and his bedroom door.

When he returns, Renjun's head is lolled over to the side. Donghyuck _did_ warn him, so Donghyuck grabs Renjun's face and lets his long, black tongue, run over Renjun's cheek and eyelid. He tastes fresh, like a mint leaf or flowers. It's not bad even though Donghyuck would rather die than eat a vegetable. Renjun shrieks and sits up immediately.

"What the fuck, Donghyuck?"

"I warned you," Donghyuck retorts. "You have to be awake to go through the wormhole or else your organs can get all fucked up."

"Like how?"

"Like your eyeballs on the back of your kneecaps." Renjun swallows hard.

"Then I'm most definitely awake."

"Very good." Donghyuck sits back in his chair and buckles himself in. "Are you ready?"

"Clearly not," Renjun mutters.

"Great, let's go." Donghyuck grips the steering wheel and angles the ship towards the wormhole as precisely as he can.

When they hit the wormhole, Donghyuck feels his whole body turn to jello, yet he forces himself to keep pushing forward through. They can't stop or else they will get stuck in here and possibly be shot out in a totally different galaxy.

Renjun is gripping onto his chair, trying his best not to get sick and Donghyuck is focused ahead. The end is so close to being in sight. Donghyuck can nearly taste it.

When they shoot out, Donghyuck switches off the shield and fast speed adjustment. Renjun collapses back against his chair and Donghyuck does the same after switching into auto-pilot.

"Now we have three more hours before we land on Acrux,” Donghyuck says. "Can you handle it up here or do I need to get you some more medicine for your motion sickness?"

"Yeah, I think I need something because it's taking all of my self-restraint not to barf a whole forest on your nice floors," Renjun replies. So he's sick, but not so sick that he can't be sarcastic. Donghyuck goes back to the bathroom, happy to see nothing got messed up because of the wormhole, and grabs Renjun the motion sickness medicine.

"Here you go, homie," Donghyuck says, holding out the medicine to Renjun who takes it gratefully.

"I thought we only had to say no homo after the tenth kiss," Renjun mutters, and Donghyuck laughs.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not keeping track," Donghyuck replies. "Though I know it's at least five at this point."

"I think it's at eight already," Renjun guesses. "But I don't really know either."

"Eight is a solid number."

"We could make it nine," Renjun suggests.

"You mentioned puking less than five minutes ago," Donghyuck points out. "You have to wait half an hour at least."

"I think that's dumb."

"But consent—"

"I will kiss Yukhei instead then," Renjun declares. "Once we get him back of course."

"Not if I kiss him first," Donghyuck protests. "This is ridiculous though. We have like two and a half hours before we even land on Acrux, so I'm going to review the blueprints Johnny gave us a few times."

"Did he decide which entrance would be the easiest for us to get in?" Renjun asks. "I see two different colored marks on the map."

"Green is me and purple is you," Donghyuck explains. "I'm going to park the ship towards where we will exit which is marked with an X. Then I'll loop over to here which is the circle and climb through the vents to let you in here which is the square."

"There's so many shapes," Renjun comments. "So I just wait around by the square until you let me in?"

"Not exactly. That's the weakest entrance security-wise and then I will walk through this hallway where you will meet me in front of Yukhei's cell. I'll have opened it already and it'll look like you're just removing him for official business and then we do our best not to be suspicious until we have to run the rest of the way out and hightail it out of there at light speed."

"Okay, I think I can do that."

line break

Donghyuck reviews the plan one more time with Renjun before finding the hole in the ground he would have to climb into. The entire facility is all underground so Donghyuck has to climb down to get into the top level of the building. The only above-ground employee entrance is the one Renjun should be walking to right now.

Popping off the top of the air vent isn't difficult, despite the fact that Donghyuck can't see what he's doing with his hands (he's wearing the invisibility suit so he won't get caught). He lowers himself into the vent slowly and tests its ability to hold weight. Nothing moves or makes any weird sounds, so Donghyuck climbs inside the vent fully. He knows that he has to go straight and then turn right once it dead ends and finally drop down to let Renjun in.

Crawling through the vent takes a bit of balance so Donghyuck doesn't make any loud sounds. Occasionally he has to pause to make sure that the voices he hears below don't hear him. Before too much time passes, Donghyuck finds himself at the end of the vent, ready to drop down and let Renjun into the building.

Donghyuck pushes on the end of the vent and finds that it's loose, so he doesn't knock it onto the ground. Instead of pushing it off onto the ground, Donghyuck keeps his grip on the end of the vent. Once it's off all the way, Donghyuck rests it on the top of the vent tube and looks down below to see if he got anyone's attention.

There are no guards. It said low security on the blueprint, but this seems a little bit low. Donghyuck shrugs. His win that whoever runs this place didn't expect Donghyuck Lee to bust in. Donghyuck lowers himself out of the vent and drops himself to the ground. No alarms blare and nothing happens, so Donghyuck walks over to the door with no concerns. He pushes it open and is pleased to see Renjun standing there, also dressed in the appropriate outfit for today's activities. Renjun really looks like he could be a guard.

"I'm going left and you're going right," Donghyuck reminds in a whisper, and Renjun nods. Traveling as fast he dares, Donghyuck shoots off to the left and is careful to slow down anytime he nears an actual guard. Luckily for Renjun, they have guards of all species in each section.

Donghyuck skids to a stop in front of Block C. He walks straight down the center and looks left and right for cell number 43. He sees species of all kinds, all looking depressed and unhappy where they are. If Donghyuck thought he could pull off a full prison break he would. It would be quite on-brand for him after all. Maybe he'll just report the place and get the legal solution done for once. While less on-brand, that would be a better moral solution.

Glancing across the cells, Donghyuck sees he's reached cell number 40. Only three more. 41 is on the left and 42 on the right. Meaning, 43 must be only a few feet ahead of him. Donghyuck stops and stares at Yukhei for a moment. Oh, how he's missed his favorite glowing metal boy.

The lock isn't crazy complex that's in front of him. Like, it would be difficult with anyone that doesn't have a built-in lock pick. Donghyuck lifts up the mask of his invisibility suit an inch or so and lets his tongue wriggle its way into the lock. He feels out each pin and knocks them all to the right. It's quite a complicated lock if Donghyuck's being honest. He only finishes the last pin when Renjun shows up which means that Renjun saw Donghyuck with his tongue in a lock.

Renjun's face scrunches up and Donghyuck would roll his eyes, but no one could see, so just fixes his mask and lets Renjun open the cell door. Yukhei looks up and so do a few other prisoners, but no one says anything.

"What's up with the prisoners?" Renjun whispers.

"There must be something in their cells that makes them not care or unmotivated, I think," Donghyuck replies. "Yukhei come on, stand up."

"You," Yukhei says, suddenly enraged. "You got me put in here." He stands and walks out of the cell.

"Walk with me," Renjun says. "I promise I will explain everything and even if you don't trust me, I'm breaking you out of jail so just shush for the moment."

"Fine, but let me smack Donghyuck at least once," Yukhei replies and then they are out of ear range, having already turned left around the corner. Donghyuck closes the cell, so no one at either end of the cell block will notice anything is wrong immediately. Donghyuck goes to the end of the hallway and turns left, but Renjun isn't there.

"Renjun?" Donghyuck whispers. Renjun disappeared a moment ago with Yukhei. They should have turned left here and then Donghyuck should still be able to see them, but he can't see them at all. Something metal presses into his side and Donghyuck's heart sinks.

"Motherfucker!" Donghyuck exclaims. "Ten, I should have fucking known." Except when Donghyuck turns around, it isn't Ten, it's Yuta. "Now, I did not see this coming at all." Yuta wasn't even on Johnny's list, but Ten was the number one person on it, so of course, Donghyuck would assume it's Ten.

"Most people wouldn't have seen it coming," Yuta replies, taser still pressed into Donghyuck's side. Yuta can't see Donghyuck but he can feel him. "You're going to walk into the other room or else I'll rip all those pretty vines off your friend. That would hurt." Donghyuck grits his teeth and lets Yuta coercive him into another room because what else is he going to do? He cares deeply for Yukhei and is beginning to care for Renjun as well.

Donghyuck walks into the room with the taser still pressing into his side and slouches down. In the center of the room is Ten atop a metal throne with Yukhei handcuffed and sitting next to him. On Donghyuck's left, Renjun is kneeling on the hard ground with Mark holding a taser to the back of his neck.

"Take off your mask, Donghyuck," Yuta commands and Donghyuck wants to ask how Yuta, someone he once looked up to, but not anymore, knows his name, especially his real name. Donghyuck pulls the mask off his head, hair poofing out everywhere, and quickly slips it into his pants pocket where the universal mace rests. Yuta moves the taser to the back of Donghyuck's neck and forces him to kneel in the same position as Renjun.

Donghyuck and Renjun make eye contact with each other before looking forwards to Ten on his throne. His legs hang over one side and his eyes narrow as he takes a better look at Donghyuck and Renjun. The whole scene feels dramatic, but Donghyuck bites his tongue for fear of being tasered as punishment for speaking. Donghyuck has seen the movies before and that's what always happens.

"Oh, Donghyuck," Ten says, mocking Donghyuck. "Couldn't you keep your nose out of other people's business?"

"What?" Donghyuck chokes out. He hates Ten's guts openly (this incident is now at the top of the list for reasons why, but even still) but he's never really done anything to hurt Ten directly.

"You and Yukhei kept causing problems for my business investments, so I staged a little accident for the two of you, but only Yukhei ended up damaged. I was worried things would go back to normal and blow up in my face, but little Renjun over here managed to help my plan," Ten says.

"Wait what, how?" Renjun sits up and Mark forces him back over with the taser being pressed into the flesh of his neck.

"All I wanted was to stop Donghyuck and Yukhei's antics and you brought them to a complete stop for several months, allowing me to expand my business a great deal," Ten explains.

"So that's why Mark encouraged me to remove Yukhei's memories," Renjun realizes, unable to keep the thought to himself.

"Correct," Mark replies, letting the taser make swirls on Renjun's neck just to fuck with him.

"It appears Renjun actually has some brains on him, unlike poor Donghyuck over there." Ten laughs and rests his chin in his palm. Donghyuck thought he would never want to punch out someone's teeth more than Jaemin's, but Ten has pushed Donghyuck beyond his limits. He would love nothing more than to remove every other of Ten's stupid, perfectly straight teeth. "Anything I need to spell out for you, Hyuckie?"

"How did you get Yukhei?" Donghyuck asks, it's been driving him crazy and he couldn't figure it out completely.

"You left your pants at Mark's place and in the pocket of your pants was your keys," Ten explains, laughing and Donghyuck's jaw drops. He should have been able to put that together.

Donghyuck and Renjun spare a glance at each other and don't say a word. Donghyuck assumes that Renjun looking at him must be weird as he's only a floating head at this point. Even if the two of them have more witty comments to make at Ten, Yukhei is their number one priority. Yukhei isn't moving and Donghyuck can't figure out why. He must realize that Donghyuck wasn't lying to him before on the ship. Ten confirmed that Yukhei knew Donghyuck and was causing problems with him.

"I suppose nothing else then." Ten straightens up and rests his elbows on his knees. "Not even a bit of commentary about Mark being here? Did you two figure something out beforehand?"

"No, but Mark is a dick, so I'm not surprised that he's involved in your shady dealings." Donghyuck snorts and Yuta kicks him in the back. "Fuck you, Yuta. You know Mark is a dick, don't bother defending him."

"Can I please tase him?" Yuta begs. "He's such a royal pain in my ass and got me placed in a holding cell on Betelgeuse." Ten seems to weigh each option in his mind and Donghyuck takes another quick glance at Renjun. Now is their chance to escape.

"I mean—" Donghyuck hops up and kicks Yuta squarely in the crotch, proud of his accuracy while Renjun runs away from Mark to get to Yukhei. Ten screams for guards and Donghyuck decides the best way to take out the hydra is to cut off his head.

Donghyuck lunches at Ten with everything he has, grabbing a small thing of universal mace and spraying it directly into Ten's eyes and mouth. Ten's scream is satisfying in a way that makes Donghyuck slightly okay with not stealing any of Ten's teeth.

Pulling away from Ten, Donghyuck focuses on Mark who's torn on who to attack, him or Renjun. Mark's taser shoots out towards Renjun and Donghyuck does the most logical thing he can think of: jump in front of it so Renjun doesn't get tasered. He's never had volts of electricity shoot through every inch of his body before and Donghyuck plans to keep it that way.

Donghyuck's body convulses and pulses with too much energy and Renjun screams, "Donghyuck no!" But it's already too late. Donghyuck can't feel anything in his body, but he sees that Renjun has taken Yukhei's handcuffs off and a can of mace in hand. Renjun sprays Mark in the face before he can fire his taser again and whips out his own taser. "Anyone that tries to get in my way will be tasered without question. I also have more mace. Yukhei, pick up Donghyuck." Yukhei's arms wrap around Donghyuck's invisible body in the most awkward way possible (he can't really see what he's grabbing and is trying his best here).

"I got you," Yukhei whispers, “But where's the rest of your mace? I wanna spray Ten again." That's the Yukhei Donghyuck knows and love and even though it hurts, he pulls two more maces out of his pants pocket for Yukhei. Yukhei grabs one and sprays Ten right in the ear while he's trying to call for help. Then he chucks the empty container at Ten and hits him directly.

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here," Renjun exclaims. Renjun starts sprinting back out the way they came and Yukhei chases after him, not slowed at all by Donghyuck's weight in his arms. Renjun guides them through the hallways until Donghyuck starts to regain proper feeling in his body.

"Yukhei, let me down," Donghyuck says. "We can go faster if you're not hauling all my weight." Donghyuck wriggles against Yukhei and pulls his mask back on over his head. Yukhei grips Donghyuck tighter.

"You can't run properly," Yukhei protests.

"Oh yeah?" Donghyuck snarks. "Watch me." Donghyuck leaps out of Yukhei's arms and sprints ahead of Renjun and checks the halls ahead of time. They are so close to the exit, but Donghyuck spots Yuta (the only non-maced one) standing at the exit with four guards next to him.

Donghyuck doubles back and whispers to Yukhei and Renjun, "Yuta is by the door." They halt and take a second to catch their breath. "Renjun, give me your taser."

"Donghyuck, do you even know how to use a taser?" Renjun counters.

"I have now been tasered sixty-seven times, there's no way I don't know how to use it," Donghyuck points out.

"Number one, what the fuck. Number two, that's not how that works," Yukhei chimes in.

"You were the cause of forty of them, you can shut up," Donghyuck hisses, and Yukhei holds up his hands in defense. "Hand it over, Renjun." Renjun looks skeptical, but he's also looking in the wrong spot to look at Donghyuck. "My eyes are up here." Donghyuck points at his eyes but then remembers that Renjun can't see his hands either.

"I still don't think this is a good idea," Renjun says.

"I promised I'd keep you safe, so let me." Renjun opens his hand and Donghyuck snatches the taser out of his hand. Donghyuck sneaks a few steps forward, so Yuta is back in his line of sight. He says something to a guard who shrugs. Probably wondering where Donghyuck is.

Having no clue how long the range on the taser is, Donghyuck knows he has to get as close as possible. He also knows that the closer he is, the stronger the impact. It would also benefit him to hit some of Yuta's exposed skin rather than his clothes. With all of that in mind, Donghyuck sticks the taser in his pants (most terrifying moment for his genitals ever) and steps silently across the floor. Once only four feet away from Yuta, Donghyuck rips the taser out and shoots it at Yuta with everything he has. Yuta screams and Donghyuck drops the taser, so the guards can't see where he is.

He roundhouse kicks one of them in the face right as Yukhei and Renjun barge in, mace cans at the ready. They take out two other guards and Donghyuck gets the last one with his own can of mace.

The three of them run out the exit without a glance back.

line break

"Hold on, guys," Donghyuck announces before throwing the ship into the fastest speed it can go to get them off Acrux. Renjun and Yukhei don't even have time to sit down before being knocked to the ground.

Once they are in space Donghyuck spins around in his chair and says, "I have no idea where we should go."

"Set a course for Procyon," Renjun says. "I think that's pretty far out of the way and a good place to hide out for a bit."

"Okay, done."

"I have so many questions," Yukhei announces. "And I need some answers."

"We’re your guys for questions," Donghyuck replies.

"I don't even know how to put half of them into words, but can you give me my memories back now? Everyone keeps talking about all these things I did and I have no memory of them, so I don't know what's true and what's not true."

"Yes, Donghyuck go and get the jewels and I'll get Yukhei ready," Renjun says, sitting up but keeping Yukhei flat on the ground. Donghyuck quickly goes back to his room and opens his safe, grabbing everything in there. He returns to Renjun petting Yukhei's hair lightly.

"What's going on?" Donghyuck asks. "I have no idea how you go about restoring memories, so I'll trust you to do all the heavy lifting on this one." Renjun nods and sifts through the pile for Mark's hard drive.

"Okay, Yukhei, baby, this is gonna feel a bit strange, but I need you to trust me," Renjun says and Yukhei nods. Renjun sticks the USB into Yukhei's neck. "That's it."

"What do you mean that's it?" Donghyuck hisses. "You mean I stole all this shit for nothing."

"No no no," Renjun reassures. "Just having the jewels near the USB puts the data back on it. It's a really cool thing that Mark invented."

"Well, he can go fuck himself," Donghyuck pouts.

"Yes, we’ve realized this now," Renjun replies. Yukhei's body makes a strange sound and the pair look down at him; Yukhei is crying.

"Yukhei, are you okay?" Donghyuck asks, and then he's being tackled in the most intense hug of his life.

"I love you so much," Yukhei sobs. "I'm so sorry for being a dick to you before. You're such a good friend to me and I don't know what I would do without you." Then Donghyuck is crying too.

"Yukhei, you dumb baby, I love you too." Donghyuck eyes Renjun out of the corner of his eye, looking slightly left out. "Renjun, come join our hug. I would invite you in but Yukhei is crushing my arms."

"I'm overwhelmed leave me alone," Yukhei whines. Renjun smiles and wraps his arms around both of them. Donghyuck turns his head to Renjun who glances at his lips on instinct. Nothing more is said before they connect their lips softly.

Donghyuck breaks the kiss and whispers, "No homo." Renjun bursts out laughing and Yukhei looks up.

"Donghyuck, I want a kiss too, but like a real one," Yukhei demands. "I feel bad for making our first one so shitty, so uhhh." Donghyuck doesn't need to be told twice and grabs Yukhei's cheeks and pulls him in close and kisses him like they have no tomorrow. Renjun's hands hesitantly touch Donghyuck's waist and Yukhei's shoulder. Neither of them flinches away from the touch. Yukhei breaks the kiss and turns his attention to Renjun. "Is it weird that I want to kiss you too?"

"Not at all," Renjun replies and they bring their lips together hesitantly. Watching them kiss makes something turn in Donghyuck's gut, but not in a bad way. When they part, Yukhei's eye is a soft pink color, and Donghyuck smiles.

"So what does any of this mean?" Yukhei asks.

"Does it matter?" Donghyuck asks. "We have three clear established enemies, two allies, and one Jisung, wherever he fits in. I think we have plenty more adventures to go on as three. Provided both of you want to come with me."

"To infinity and beyond," Yukhei declares, pumping his fist in the air.

Donghyuck might not be perfect or know everything, but he knows that he will be at his best with Yukhei and Renjun by his sides. Off they go, together as one, to infinity and beyond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG THIS IS THE FIRST CHAPTERED FIC I'VE FINISHED OMGOM OMGODSD. okay where do I start with my thanks,,, thank you to Brooke for reading over this whole thing and replacing all my notes that say YUTA PLANET NAME HERE because I know like zero names of anything TT. thank you to ella for helping me come up with this whole plot in the first place. thank you to tee and lil and macka for getting so excited about this fic that I can write it. and thank you to readers like you who help motivate me.
> 
> mask has been such a fun and wild ride and I'm so glad to finally finish it. to those that like my work come follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/carrotyeol)  
> or send me a [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.qa/carrotyeol)
> 
> feel free to also send any questions you may have about the fic to my cc or dms and ill be happy to answer them :D

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me if you want chapter two
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/carrotyeol)


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